REVIEW: Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind at The Art Institute of Chicago
Exhibition Entrance of Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind, 2022. Photo by Meredith Wood Bahuriak.
REVIEW
Sophie Calle
Because — The Blind
Aug 27, 2022–Jan 23, 2023
The Art Institute of Chicago
Modern Wing Entrance - Gallery 188
159 East Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60603
By Meredith Wood Bahuriak
The Art Institute of Chicago is presenting Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind, which cemented Calle’s reputation as an artist who is part sleuth, part philosopher, and at least as much writer and storyteller as maker of images.
“I met people who were born blind. Who had never seen. I asked them what their image of beauty was
- Sophie Calle
In 1986, French artist Sophie Calle introduced herself to people attending an institute for the blind in Paris and asked if she might speak with them on the subject of beauty. Calle photographed each person she interviewed and also assembled photographs of one to three scenes or things they named as beautiful.
Exhibition view of Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind, 2022. Photo by Meredith Wood Bahuriak.
The conversations took a deeply personal nature, as Calle made clear in excerpts she typed up and framed alongside the photographs. The final work, comprising 23 conversations and more than 80 images, debuted at a Los Angeles gallery in 1989. Individual sections have been widely reproduced, and the project has inspired Calle to work repeatedly on questions of vision, art, and recollections of private life.
In 2020, the Art Institute acquired the only complete version of The Blind in English — the one first shown more than 30 years earlier in Los Angeles. Alongside this classic early work, this presentation includes examples from Calle’s recent series, Because, in which she details her personal reasons for making certain photographs over the years; these reasons are embroidered on wool cloths that visitors must lift to see the pictures in question. Because and The Blind show in complementary ways the coyly provocative spirit that animates Sophie Calle’s investigations, and which she continues to put forth in new ways four decades into her career.
Exhibition view of Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind, 2022. Photo by Meredith Wood Bahuriak.
Art has a therapeutic role for Calle as she brings into her work her own pain, which she sometimes compares with the testimonials of other people. She defines her art as "situation art" in which choices are confronted, creating tension.
Each photograph is concealed by a felt curtain embroidered with Calle’s writing. The viewer encounters the text before the photograph, inverting the usual order in which images in the gallery space are read. Holding a fascination with the slightly odd yet meaningful and rich, her work’s playful humor and forthright emotional expression directly engage the viewer, allowing one to feel a glimpse of Calle’s personal life in a type of measured intimacy and meditative acquaintanceship.
Exhibition view of Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind, 2022. Photo by Meredith Wood Bahuriak.
The piece brings up many questions for the viewer. First, how accurate is Calle’s interpretation of the woman’s description? Second, since these people have never experienced the world with sight, is it even possible to translate their idea of beauty into a photograph, which uses only our vision to communicate? Also, we experience the work visually, in the precise way the subject of the work — the blind — can never experience it. The piece shows, among other things, that ideas of beauty vary greatly, and that for a large group of people, the experience excludes sight. In displaying these different descriptions of beauty, Calle shows that our ways of communicating these ideas are imperfect, fluid, and unique to the person using them.
Sophie Calle: Because —The Blind is on exhibit now through January 23rd, 2023 at The Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 188. The Art Institute of Chicago is open at 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. to the public (10 a.m. - 5 p.m. for members) on Thursday - Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, The Art Institute of Chicago is closed.
Related event: Fullerton Hall, Lecture: Sophie Calle: Because — The Blind on Thursday, September 22, 2022, at 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. Join Matthew Witkovsky, Sandor Chair and Curator of Photography and Media, for an overview of the exhibition Sophie Calle: Because—The Blind. Free: registration required.
Sophie Calle's work has been exhibited in some of the most important museums of the world, such as Centre Georges Pompidou or the MoMA in New York, but also at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
Like what you’re reading? Consider donating a few dollars to our writer’s fund and help us keep publishing every Monday.
