{"id":6537,"date":"2015-11-12T21:51:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T02:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/sophie-calle-unfinished-at-fraenkel-gallery\/"},"modified":"2023-01-25T15:27:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T20:27:26","slug":"sophie-calle-unfinished-at-fraenkel-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/reviews\/sophie-calle-unfinished-at-fraenkel-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Calle: Unfinished at Fraenkel Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15587\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15587\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cash-machine.4-560x420-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-15587 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cash-machine.4-560x420-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cash-Machine.4-560x420\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 560px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 560\/420;\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-15587 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/cash-machine.4-560x420-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cash-Machine.4-560x420\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\"><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15587\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sophie Calle, <em>Cash Machine<\/em>, 1991\/2003. Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The idea that artists can easily resolve their work is a myth &#8212; this is the pretext of Sophie Calle\u2019s current show at <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/fraenkelgallery.com\/exhibitions\/sophie-calle-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fraenkel Gallery<\/a><\/span> (on view through December 24). It\u2019s a heartening admission\u2014that even artists of her stature grapple with completion &#8212; but showing works that are technically incomplete has inherent pitfalls. Nothing here is new; it\u2019s all material that has been floating around in the artist\u2019s mind and studio, looking for the right context.<\/p>\n<p>A timeline traces the origins of works in the show, and while she is forthcoming about her uncertain artistic aims, factual details remain vague. The timeline starts with the 1988 back story of <em>Cash Machine<\/em>, 1991-2003, a series of ATM surveillance photographs that dominate the first gallery. These grainy black-and-white stills stem from a commission from an unnamed bank, though she doesn\u2019t reveal how she acquired the footage. \u201cThe images were beautiful but I didn\u2019t know what to do with them,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n<p>The time-stamped, gridded images of a shirtless young man, a pensive woman, or&nbsp;a handsome man with an opaque expression, have an elusive appeal. They waver between street photography, cinema verit\u00e9, and surveillance portraits, all of which come with implied narratives. But Calle doesn\u2019t give us much to go on, so they just raise questions\u2014how did she get this material, and is it legal to exhibit it?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15592\" style=\"width: 397px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sophie-calle-cash-machine-04-30.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15592 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sophie-calle-cash-machine-04-30.jpg\" alt=\"Sophie Calle, Cash Machine, 1991\/2003. Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery\" width=\"397\" height=\"300\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 397px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 397\/300;\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15592\" src=\"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sophie-calle-cash-machine-04-30.jpg\" alt=\"Sophie Calle, Cash Machine, 1991\/2003. Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery\" width=\"397\" height=\"300\"><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sophie Calle, <em>Cash Machine<\/em>, 1991\/2003. Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She does reveal that an anonymous \u201csecurity agent\u201d provided the bullet-ridden mug shots of petty criminals used for target practice by unidentified police officers. Calle re-photographed them and applied a tasteful gray bar over their eyes. The images in the series, which is titled C<em>ollateral Damage: Targets<\/em>, 1990-2003, have poignancy, violence, and trashy eroticism&#8211; Christian Boltanski meets Larry Clark.<\/p>\n<p><em>Secrets&nbsp;<\/em>comprises a framed legal agreement for each half of a couple to tell the artist something unknown to the other, and two safes to store the documents\u2014the piece won\u2019t fully be completed until someone signs on the dotted line. According to the timeline, the idea dates to 1998, but was realized in 2014, and \u201chas nothing to do with the bank photos.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the artist can\u2019t quite make the connections, then the onus falls on the viewer\u2014though she does her best to seduce us. Calle builds this seduction into the framework through a decade old video also titled <em>Unfinished<\/em>, in which she narrates her inability to resolve these works. The trope is quintessential Calle, though the collection of works ultimately seem like remnants dusted off for an exhibition in a pinch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The idea that artists can easily resolve their work is a myth &#8212; this is the pretext of Sophie Calle\u2019s current show at Fraenkel Gallery (on view through December 24). It\u2019s a heartening admission\u2014that even artists of her stature grapple with completion &#8212; but showing works that are technically incomplete has inherent pitfalls. Nothing here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6405,6629,16856,6465,7137,1708,7311,6391,6439,6454,5857,18457","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"issues":[94],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6537"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photographmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=6537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}