The CBC recently reported upon a French conceptual artist, Sophie Calle who currently has an exhibit in Montreal. (1) When I first read about her work, my first thought was "yikes", then, "hmmmmm."
Ms. Calle, you see, has found a way to not only turn her own personal relationships into art, she has also done this to others who did not agree to the undertaking.
An example of the former, is her current exhibit Take Care of Yourself (Prenez soin de vous), which is the last line in a break-up e-mail from a boyfriend. Ms. Calle then sent the letter to 107 women and asked them to assess it according to their different types of expertise (by proof-readers, etiquette specialists, archivists, rabbis, actresses who act it out, singers who sing it etc). A copy of the letter is available to guests at the gallery for their involvement too.
Examples of the latter include: (i) Hotel Suite where she got a job as a chamber maid so she could go through guests' luggage and document the contents; and (ii) Address Book, where after finding an address book in the street, she photocopied it before returning it to the owner. She then interviewed the addressees and published this in 28 daily installments in a french newspaper. The owner of the book was a Pierre Baudry, who was coincidentally a french documentary film maker who was outraged by the experience. He retaliated by insisting that the newspaper publish a nude photo of Calle, which they did (but cropped off the head); and (iii) Suite Venitienne, followed a man she met at a party in Paris to Venice, where she disguised herself and followed him around the city, photographing him and then publishes the photos with text.(2)
She has other works which are not invasive, such as asking blind people about their thoughts about beauty.
CBC's critic says that Calle achieves perspective and closure through other people and also some kind of redemption.
She has other works that fall in between these and mingle fact and fiction which also make you think. For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Calle
Artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1) http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2008/09/23/f-sophie-calle-montreal.html
(2) Bois, Yve-Alain, "Character Study: Sophie Calle." Artforum, April, 2000, pp. 126–31.
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