Calle, Sophie | The Tombes, Mother / Father, 1990 — available on Composition Gallery

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// Sophie Calle's The Tombes, Mother / Father (1990) is a thought-provoking gelatin silver print exploring themes of memory, loss, and familial identity. This black-and-white diptych presents two gravestones inscribed with the words MOTHER and FATHER, set against a ground strewn with fallen leaves, symbolizing decay and the passage of time. The central placement of voids, possibly where flowers or markers were once placed, adds a hauntingly personal touch, emphasizing absence. Calle's work invites reflection on the nature of relationships and the inevitable void left by loved ones, capturing a powerful meditation on mortality and familial bonds.

Sophie Calle (France, 1953) is a conceptual artist and writer known for blending personal narrative with investigative art. Her work often explores themes of intimacy, identity, and voyeurism, using photography, text, and performance. Notable projects include The Hotel and Take Care of Yourself, which merge art and autobiography with striking emotional depth.

Sophie Calle

The Tombes, Mother / Father, 1990

Name: The Tombes, Mother / Father, 1990
SKU: 3795

Form

Photography

PhotographyPhotography is the process of creating an image on light sensitive materials. The image is produced by using a camera, which has a lens that focuses on light either reflected or emitted from an object. These visible wavelengths are used to reproduce the image seen.

Medium

Gelatin Silver Print

Gelatin Silver PrintA silver gelatin print is a type of photographic print made using the silver process. In this process, photographic materials such as black and white films and printing papers are coated with a light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts suspended in gelatin. This emulsion is applied to a support, which could be flexible plastic, glass, resin-coated paper, or baryta paper. The materials are light-sensitive and remain stable under normal storage conditions, making them ideal for long-term preservation.

Edition

Edition of 7

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Sophie Calle

The Tombes, Mother / Father, 1990

Photography

Gelatin Silver Print

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I did not think about becoming an artist when I began. I did not consider what I was doing as art.
- Sophie Calle

Hailed as 'France's answer to Tracey Enim' by The Telegraph, Sophie Calle, is a conceptual artist, widely known for her 1982 piece 'The Hotel' - a collection of photos depicting the personal belongings of hotel guests, which aimed to make assumptions about their identities and lifestyle. Her main style of art consists of taking black and white photographs, as well as combining a performance element to her pieces. Calle is largely associated with the contemporary art movement, which strived to reject modernism, as well as reject the post structuralist notion of 'the death of the author'. Other notable works of Calle's include The Shadow (1981), which was an attempt to provide evidence of her own existence through the medium of photography, and Address Book (1983), which caused controversy when Calle was accused of breaching the privacy of the subject Pierre Baudry, who owned the address book used in the piece. As of 2005, Calle has been a professor of film and photography at The European Graduate School of Switzerland.

Artwork by Laure Prouvost

What is Lettrism?

Lettrism is an art form that uses letters, words, and symbols to create artwork. The movement was established in Paris in the 1940s and later gained popularity in the 1950s in America. Lettrisme is the French spelling of the movement's name, derived from the French word for letter.

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Sophie Calle

The Tombes, Mother / Father, 1990

56 x 36 cm

Language & Currency

Sophie Calle