Double-Blind is a conceptual video work originally released in Europe as a feature film. In this voyeuristic examination of intimacy and identity, French conceptual artist Sophie Calle is joined by her collaborator and partner, Gregory Shephard. Armed with camcorders while cruising west across the United States in Shephard’s Cadillac, they produced and documented a real-life narrative of their journey — and their relationship. In this unconventional coast-to-coast road movie, America is the backdrop for Calle and Shephard’s strikingly different versions of their experiences.

The protagonists chronicle a landscape of human relations, wrestling to reconcile self, sexuality, and desire. The viewer is subtly lured into reviewing the subjective and cultural roles imposed by gender, sexuality, power, and tradition. Throughout this personal exploration Calle seeks to redefine the terms and parameters of subject/object, public/private, truth/fiction, and role-playing. The quasi-documentary style evokes the films of Chris Marker, to whom Double-Blind is dedicated.

Double-Blind

76 minutes, color, 1992.

The sound track includes music by Jackson Brown, La Canastera, Pascal Comelade, Cowboy Junkies, Greg and Michael, Mozart, Roy Orbison, Taj Mahal, Tom Waits, and Dwight Yoakam.

 

Text and image from Electronic Arts Intermix, "Online Catalogue: "Double-Blind."

Reprinted with modifications by permission of Electronic Arts Intermix.