Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

 

Archive

 

Volume 11 Number 2, August 2010

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TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

 

when we arrive at the lower galleries

in Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

where Sophie Calle's "Take Care of Yourself" is installed

we first hear laughter, both recorded and live

because, as it turns out, people are laughing

at a clown, on a video screen, laughing as she reads out loud

and comments on the use of brackets and ellipses

in the e-mail Sophie Calle had received from her boyfriend

telling her that he's dumping because he can't live

up to his promise of only seeing her and not

his other three lovers. Those French, you say, and think of Sartre

and all his women. But unlike "The Beaver," Sophie Calle did not want

to be number four and besides she found the e-mail so puzzling

that she asked 107 women to interpret it, each from her professional standpoint

hence the clown, the actress, the Indian dancer, the singers, the ballerina

the literary critic's commentary, the composer's score. 107 ways of responding

to a highly intellectual dear Joan letter ending with pleasantly good advice

"Take Care of Yourself." So she did, getting all those women to tell him off

did he not realize that the artist he had been dating for months loves

texts and images, loves to mix intimate with public?

did he desire her hilarious revenge? No, his letter may be devious

but he shows no sign of brilliance

 

an exhibit crowded with couples whispering to each other,

girlfriends chuckling, and kids and their parents laughing

is a good place to be. Even my father who's not generally a friend

of modern art smiles at the parrot on the screen who' s learnt to say

"Take Care of Yourself." We've come because my mother died

a few days ago and she enjoyed this place.  We've been here

almost every time I've been back for a visit - for art, coffee

and pastry in all sorts of weather. This is a day she would have loved

a calm sea and and a clear view of Sweden across the sound

 

leaving the Sophie Calle exhibit we pass her memorial to her mother

"souci," her mother's last word, repeated on consecutive glass

plates leading to a photo of her on her death bed. My mother

also said that she was worried, nervous just before she died and

had we entered there rather than exited, we would not have seen

"Take Care of Yourself."

 

- P.K. Brask