Sophie Calle from the series ‘True Stories’ The Argument, Tuesday 10 March 1992 empty tea kettle, biography of Bruce Nauman, wodden chair, black phone, wedding picture
Content: The artwork is showing a variety of objects from an argument between the artist and her husband. Those objects were used in the fight and they are the ones that Sophie Calle remark the most when the violent debate occurred in 1992.
Composition: The choice to display the artwork on the ground is to recall the throwing of objects inside the house walls. Moreover, the furniture pieces are lying down in order to remark the strong and violent argument that happened between the husband and the wife on that day. Sophie Calle uses everyday objects because this problems can happen everyday to a variety of women around the world. The objects are installed on a wooden floor that can recall the actually floor from Sophie Calle’s house.
Context: The artist intention to make this kind of artworks was to tell her own life experiences through the various events that changed her as a person and her interaction with other people. She made this on the same day that the fight with her husband happened as she wanted to be sure that she can remember clearly the event and the objects that were central in that action. In the final part of the display, Sophie Calle deliberately wanted to add a picture of their marriage to look back at her husband.
Connection: I find really interesting how the artist chooses to represent this violent event in a simple, but, really realistic way. I think that my way to represent large and difficult topics is like hers, meaning that I love to simplify major problematics and bring them to an essence in order to show only the artwork without difficulties for viewers to understand.
Comment: I think that the artist wants to fight against women violence and represent how her personal experience can occur to anyone. I believe that the strengths of the artwork are the choice to display it on the ground in a tilted way, so that those objects can actually represent the fighting that happened between wife and husband and the use of few items is to make the viewers understand in an easier way the meaning of the artwork. The weakness of this installation is the fact that the objects are new and we can understand that they were not used before. I think that, if Sophie Calle would have chosen to exbihit actually broken articles, the final effect of the whole installation would have been stronger.
