Take Care of Yourself (Proof-reader), 2007 © Sophie Calle

Exhibition Opening:
Thursday, April 9, 6–8 pm
Paula Cooper Gallery
534 West 21st Street
New York, New York
(212) 255-1105

Exhibition on view:
Take Care of Yourself
Thursday, April 9–Saturday, May 23, 2009

FREE

French artist Sophie Calle is often inspired by her own emotional and psychological experiences in life, and her work addresses topics of how to deal with private issues, examining the conditions and possibilities of human emotions and creating ideas about love and heartache, gender and intimacy, labor and identity.

This body of work, Take Care of Yourself, is an examination of the different ways in which women respond to a breakup letter. The exhibition includes photographic portraits and multimedia video work and textual analysis by 107 women from different professional backgrounds, such as anthropology, criminology, philosophy, psychiatry, theater, opera, and beyond. They were asked to read the letter, re-read and address the matter in their own personal way by performing, transforming, and reacting on the emotions they feel in the process.

Take Care of Yourself was first presented at the French Pavillion in the 2007 Venice Biennale. It will also travel to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

Aperture 191, summer 2008 , featured Take Care of Yourself. Calle’s work also appeared in issue 142, winter 1996.