Sophie Calle

 Sophie Calle is a French Photographer who began photography when she returned to France after travelling around the world for seven years. Because she had been away from French culture for so long she began following strangers around the streets of Paris, photographing their daily routine, to help her get back into the swing of things.

She found it very interesting and wanted to become more professional at it. She began following and photographing a different person every day until she came across one man who interested her. She explained...

.... "At the end of January 1981, on the streets of Paris, I followed a man whom I lost sight of a few minutes later in the crowd. That very evening, quite by chance, he was introduced to me at an Opening. During the course of our conversation, he told me he was planning an imminent trip to Venice. I decided to follow him."

Helping Hands

(skip to 36 seconds)

My idea of filling a space with an object you wouldn't expect to see was inspired by this short clip of a little girl in a dark hallway. I love the way the little girl can have such a terrifying impact on the passer bys. The initial fear that the child inflicts on the people is similar to the emotions that I want others to feel with some of my idea concepts.

I wanted to combine my idea of a small spaces, like an elevator with making others feel as uncomfortable as I do in one by placing an object that you wouldn't expect to be there in the elevator.

My initial thought was balloons but as I looked into does a balloon occupy space even when there is space in it. But then I felt that a balloon wasn't as daunting as lets say some ones hand, a hand coming out from the wall of the elevator. This idea was developed from a number of things such as...

One of my all time favourite movies as a child was "The Labyrinth"and one of its scenes  came to my mind as I developed my " hands reaching out from the walls" idea. The scene is titled "Helping Hands".

This scene inspired me to create and idea of having many sets of hands reaching out from the walls of the elevator as if they are about to grab the person standing in the centre. The idea of adding movement to the hands, that they look as if they're bursting through the walls, came from a sculpture I found through Facebook of two horses who look like they're running out from a wall. So much movement is captured in this sculpture which I found really interesting about the piece.

Sculpture by Savaka Kajiti Ganz called "Emergence" made with a variety of materials from plastic utensils to hangers.


This sculpture I thought ,on first looking at it, it was made from metal/wire. This gave me the idea to experiment with wire and make a hand. First I wanted to make a replica of my hand in order to sculpt the wire hand around.

Tissue and Masking Taped Hand Sculpture

Wire Hand Sculpture 

Bug Eyed.

I realised that nobody really knows how the world is seen through the eyes of others. It's not like you can take the eyes of an animal or even someone else and put them in your head and be able to see what they see. So I have decided to recreate the way I think certain animals can see the world.

I was interested in creating an image that depicted the way a fly and other insects can see an object as simple as a flower.

I started with this image....

 I then photocopied this image a few times and cut each of the pictures into small sections. I then recreated the image but layered the small sections over one and other to create a tile like effect.

I imagine that flies and other insects have many eyes, with each eye seeing the same image creating a tiled pattern like the one I have created.

Confined Spaces

I began to think how spaces make me feel. A common fear to many is claustrophobia. My experiences with this fear have occurred in small, confined, "walls are closing in" type spaces. Even now I will still refuse to travel in an elevator alone. Although I cannot avoid this means of transport at all times especially at my workplace, where travelling in an elevator is the only means of going from one floor to the next, the many scenarios (worst case scenarios) and reruns in my brain of what could happen in an elevator that would lead to my uncertain death are endless.

-Thoughts of suffocating even thought most elevators these days have air conditioning still creeps into my subconscious.
-The almost certain power cut during my (less than) 30 second elevator ride from one floor to the next.
-That falling sensation and the "this is it" moment when the elevator jumps down a little before rising or descending between floors.

These are just a few of the "Many Ways to Die in an Elevator" scenarios that are racking around in my head when confronted with this mean machine.My aim is to share my feelings of anxiety, panic and well, fear with others so that they can have a better understanding of why I've walked down this path of my project that others think is too common to take. Its how you approach the subject in question that makes your work  unique and different to others that matters.

Seeing Through the Eyes of Others

This Video inspired me to See my Space through the eyes of others, like animals. Through the eyes of my pet Dog who shares my space with me at home. It's really all to do with perspective and how by seeing the world at different levels and angles it can change the perspective of that world dramatically.

Initial Thoughts

When reading the title "To Sense My Space", I immediately thought of my surroundings. I started by gathering leaves, branches, textures (grass, soil, mud, etc.)  Natural objects that interested me and one thing stood out in particular.....

 ...This Branch with its withering leaves interested me as it looks as if the leaves are encased around something, a "space".  The image of a Mother protecting a child came to mind from the way the leaves fold around each other. It resembles two bodies in an embracing lock.

On looking in more detail at the leaves I noticed the veins running through them. These veins reminded me of the human skin as they resemble each other with similar patterns and shapes.

Hey, Hello, Hi! Hopefully this will be the first of many Blogs to come, stick around and have a snoop at my stuff and hope ya like what ya see.......