Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 11 Number 2, August 2010
___________________________________________________________________
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."