Sophie Calle: Overshare -- ART REVIEW by Alexander Laurence

Sophie Calle: Overshare

January 30, 2026 – May 24, 2026

@ UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art

REVIEW by Alexander Laurence

Sophie Calle: Overshare
January 30 – May 24, 2026
UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art
Review by Alexander Laurence

 

I have been looking forward to this exhibition for ages. I first met Sophie Calle in the early 1990s, when she regularly showed work at Fraenkel Gallery and maintained a strong presence in the Bay Area. I remember encountering her at a lecture at Cameraworks, at a time when she had already produced Suite Vénitienne and The Sleepers. Both works are represented in this retrospective.

Calle was never really a photographer in the traditional sense. She is a conceptual artist who has consistently explored themes of voyeurism, surveillance, and intimacy—long before the digital age and the internet normalized these concerns. She is as much a writer as a visual artist, and language is central to her practice.

 

In the section titled The Spy, Calle follows strangers through the city. In one project she poses as a maid, photographing travelers in their hotel rooms. The Sleepers documents a series of strangers invited to sleep in her bed, recorded through photographs and diary entries. Cash Machine uses early digital video to capture people withdrawing money from ATMs. Seen now, these figures feel like ghosts from another era.

In The Shadow, Calle reverses the gaze by hiring a private detective to follow her. In Autobiographies, she sends her bed to a man in Northern California. Other works document encounters atop the Eiffel Tower, where Calle remained in bed and spent five minutes with each visitor. True Stories presents a collection of objects chosen by the artist, alongside brief, elliptical texts. There is also a tribute to Frank Gehry.

Toward the end of the exhibition, Calle turns to her parents. There is a video of her mother, who—like her father—has since died. In one poignant gesture, Calle brings her mother’s portrait and jewelry to the North Pole. Elsewhere, secrets are locked away in safes, withheld yet present.

The final work is a video filmed in Istanbul, showing people who have never seen the sea. They are taken to the North Sea, encountering water for the first time. It is a quietly powerful ending.

This exhibition is mysterious and deeply affecting. Sophie Calle invites us to reflect on human vulnerability—on surveillance, social media, identity, memory, and death. The question lingers: what does it all mean?

All photos taken by Alexander Laurence