Gillian Wearing

'I decided that I wanted people to feel protected when they talked about certain things in their life that they wouldn’t want the public that knows them to know. I can understand that sort of holding on to things—it’s kind of part of British society to hold things in. I always think of Britain as being a place where you’re meant to keep your secrets—you should never tell your neighbours or tell anyone. Things are changing now, because the culture’s changed and the Internet has brought people out. We have Facebook and Twitter where people tell you small details of their life' -Wearing

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/gillian-wearing

I find Wearing's working interesting as she tries to draw out thinks people do not usually reveal. This act of drawing things out is something I want to explore further, this create an element of social interaction even if its just for a moment. Wearing technique is also very simple however extremely effective, by simple asking people to write something about them and hold it up and allow her to take their picture holding up the what they wrote. Wearing says you get to a point and wonder why you are doing this until you have a break through, she says her break through in this work was when a smart man in a suit wrote 'I'm desperate'.  I think this image is really powerful, that fact the Wearing got this man to draw something out that you would not expect is extremely intriguing. Everything in this image adds to the strong juxtaposition between the man and his words, including the location he is in and the slight smile on his face and how the image is light. This detail is something I would hope to carry on in my work. I idea of people writing their own message is also something I want to explore further.



After briefly looking at Wearing works, I went and asked people to write anything on a piece of paper and let me take their picture, these are some of the out comes.

Although this out come looks aesthetically effect, and very similar to Wearing's work it was not effective in drawing out things about people, which due to more research I found out was Wearing intention of her work.

After doing some more research, a when out again and asked people to write a confection on a piece of paper and to let me take their picture. This was the out come that I created. I understood Wearing's process more. Her process was very simple she asked people to 'say what you wanted to say not what someone else wants you to say' and simple write in down and let her take their picture hold it up. This creates a moment of interaction being the artist and the participated I think this is something that interested Wearing as well, further more I would like to explore this connexion for a moment between the artist and the participant or audience.

After asking everyone to write their confection of anything they wanted on the paper, I then asked them to write a wish this brings in my ideas that I was exploring by doing Yoko Ono's style wish tree. In was interesting to see the difference between how people acted when I asked the to write a confection and how they acted when I asked them to write a wish. Most people seemed to be more comfortable to write a wish and seemed to pose more for the picture then when I asked them to write a confection, and the confection they all stood very tall and smiled less. Unlike my first attended I wanted to keep the back ground more simple as this would lead to more focus on what is written on the paper and the expecting on peoples faces.

At the time of Wearing doing this piece 'say what you want to say not what someone else wants you to say' it was a time of heavy ruling, Margaret Thatcher had enforces harsh laws about people, and changed peoples life's debated for the worse. I think Wearing was trying to break free of this by creating this piece, and wanted people to think about what they truly wanted to say and express how they truly felt. I think Wearing was extremely effective in achieving this. There was a lot of things wrong with the country at the time and I believe Wearing want to create that moment of social interaction almost to pause everything which was going on around them and context with people again. I think Wearing's work is extremely powerful due to its simplicity, this is what excites me about her as an artist.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wearing-im-desperate-p78348

Another piece of Wearing's work which I found interesting was the way she informs people about her work. Wearing adverts her work in loads of different ways, such as tiny little notes in obscure newspaper, along side big posters and word of mouth, this is something that I would try and create in my work. Wearing pacifically did this in 'Self Made'


Trailer for Self Made