This monographic dissertation on the work of Sophie Calle begins by charting her very literal alliance with philosopher, Michel Foucault, and their shared work with the Prison Information Group in France in the early 1970’s. Having established this common connection between the artist and theorist, I will trace Calle’s work and its continued alignment with the prolific theorizations of Foucault. Making particular use of Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality, as well as a number of his other works, I aim to show the ways in which Calle’s art embraces a politic, albeit an aesthetic one, that challenges the “society of surveillance” as elaborated by Foucault, and disrupts the very power and authority presumably associated with it.
History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
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