Sophie Calle “Rachel, Monique” exhibition opening, New York

Paula Cooper Gallery and Galerie Perrotin present Rachel, Monique an ongoing exhibition by French artist Sophie Calle inspired by the loss of Calle’s mother Monique Sindler, who died in 2006. “She was successively called Rachel, Monique, Szyndler, Calle, Pagliero, Gonthier, Sindler. My mother liked to be the object of discussion. Her life did not appear in my work, and that annoyed her. When I set up my camera at the foot of the bed in which she lay dying – I wanted to be present to hear her last words, and was afraid that she would pass away in my absence – she exclaimed: ‘Finally!'” said Calle. The exhibition features “Couldn’t Capture Death”, the artist’s film of her mother’s dying, which premiered at the 2007 Venice Biennale, and accompanying the works on view is a soundtrack composed of selected excerpts from Monique’s diaries, which she kept from the early 1980s through 2000. Rachel, Monique runs until June 25th at The Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York. Photo Audrey Rose Smith