ANALYSIS: SOPHIE CALLE

Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, conceptual artist and installation artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of irrational sets of constraints and it also evokes the French literary movement of the 60's known as Oulipo. Calle's work often depicts human vulnerability and explores identity and intimacy. She is most famously recognised by her 'detective-like' ability to peruse strangers and take a look in on their private life. Her photography work usually includes small panels of text written by Calle herself. Calle also imposes elements of her own life onto public places creating a personal narrative where she is both the character and narrator. Her pieces include serious investigations as well as natural curiosity. 

The piece I've chosen to analyse is 'The Hotel, Room 47' which is part of Calle's Hotel series. Calle was offered a temporary job as a chambermaid in Venice. She created a piece of work of who she imagined the hotel guests to be, based on their personal belongings. 
The whole piece is made up of a two part frame. The first frame consists of a colour photograph of a expertly craved wooden bed, covered in brown satin sheets. Below the photograph are three columns of text, which are diary entries describing Calle's findings in the room. In the frame below it is is a grid made up on nine black and white images showing the things Called listed in her text. "On Monday, February 16, 1981, I was hired as a temporary chambermaid for three weeks in a Venetian hotel. I was assigned twelve bedrooms on the fourth floor. In the course of my cleaning duties, I examined the personal belongings of the hotel guests and observed through details lives which remained unknown to me."
I really liked this series by Calle. It's very intrusive and very personal as she is essentially invading these people's rooms and documenting their personal belongings. Although she does have authority to be there,it's not as if she is an ordinary maid who simply does her job absent-mindedly and leaves not thinking twice about who occupies these rooms. However Calle took the time to examine these people's belongings, their environment and tried to come up with some form of idea as to who these people where and what they did.
I find the concept so simple, yet it reveals so much. The absent occupants who are described in Room 47 are a family of four, two and parents and their two children as is shown by their four pairs of slippers. From their passports, she discovered that the parents were a married couple from Geneva and she copied out four postcards one of them has written. The words on one of the postcard suggested that perhaps there were problems within the family. It's amazing how much she managed to find out about this family by simply rummaging through their belongings and not once having to speak to a member of the family. 
Calle's descriptions of the rooms and their contents are a combination of factual documentation and her own personal response to the people whose lives she peeked. Each of the texts begins with the artist's first entry into the room and a note on which bed/beds have been slept in along with a description of the nightwear the guests left. A list of objects usually followed. Calle had no shame in reading diaries, letters, postcards and notes written or kept by the room's occupiers, looking into wardrobes and drawers. She sprayed herself with their perfume, used their makeup, ate food left behind and she even salvaged a pair of women's shoes left in a bin. Outside these rooms she listened at behind the doors, recording the guests conversations or any other sounds she may overhear and even glanced into the room when the floor-waiter would open the door in an attempt to cash a glimpse of the unknown guests.
Calle is unashamedly voyeuristic with her approach to some of her photographs and this is what I really enjoy about her photography. She gets so involved with her photographs they become very personal and I find these photographs to have the biggest impact.