Sophie Calle and ROSSETTI

SOPHIE CALLE and her GHOSTS

"I asked (them) to describe and draw it for me. I then replaced the missing painting with these memories."

This quote from Calle best desrcibes her exhibit where she used peoples ideas and thought of a painting to replace the piece itself.
Using Calle's idea as a starting point, I decided that the piece I would concentrate on was 'The Bride (the beloved)' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I then showed the whole of my art class the image. They then individually, as I described what I thought about it and some background information, wrote down 5 words to describe their initial response. Later working from memory they described what they remembered, using words and images. Image wise, people drew a lot of faces surrounding a centre face, with foliage surrounding them. Words that were used to describe the image were religion, beauty, christmas (due to the warm red and green colours) and nature. I used these ideas and my own to then write a response to the painting- ROSSETTI'S 'THE BRIDE' : PAINTING WORK...