Gillian Wearing - contemporary Artist

Gillian Wearing - born 1963

She is an English conceptual artist, is one of the Young British Artists and winner of 1997 Turner Prize.

NB – Young British Artist is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in 1988. Many of them were graduates from Goldsmiths in London like Gillian (1990). They became known for their openness to materials and processes, their use of throwaway materials, their shock tactics, their wild living, and their attitude which was both oppositional and entrepreneurial. Gillian’s partner is another YBA, Michael Landy.

Her influences include the “up” series which was a documentary that followed the lives of 14 children from age 7 up to age 56, it checked in on them every 7 years. She has an admiration of people who stick to their guns and are true to themselves so go through life without compromising. There are a couple of videos of her dancing in public places at different ages. The videos give the message that she wants to dance and she will dance no matter how bad a dancer she is and no matter if it is not expected that she dance in that place so freely.

She produces videos and photographs which shows how different our inner thoughts and feelings are from our public persona.

1)      “Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say” (1992-3). NB I thought this can teach us something about titles! For this project she approaches strangers and asks them to write what they are thinking about on a white sheet of paper. She found this challenged her, and her audiences, perception of the person. She doesn’t like to photograph people without them knowing.

“My grip on life is rather loose” – to me we see a rather jaunty looking pretty woman leaning on some rails in a fur coat – she looks confident and self assured so when she says her grip of life is rather loose it comes as a surprise. Likewise, “running on empty” shows a clean cut man in a shirt and jersey, so you don’t expect him to say he has nothing left in the tank.

 

”Trauma” 2000. This is a video installation where sitters describe childhood traumas while wearing a plastic teenager mask. The result of this was it provided very revealing and personal confessions providing the viewer with a representative picture of Western society. Masks can allow people to be someone they are not, however in this case, it serves to get rid of all the superficial aspects of physical appearance in order to reveal more fundamental truths. The mask does protect the wearer’s identity but it also empowers the wearer and allows them to confess their traumas. This reminded me of a priest's confessional.

This still from Trauma is unrealistic with its mask, wig and clothing which contrast hugely with the importance of what they are saying.

 

”60 minutes of Silence” 1997, the winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. A group of actors dressed as police officers are filmed staying still in the familiar school class photo position for 60 minutes. The image seems frozen like a snapshot but little by little, you notice movements. Wearing says the piece is influenced by early photography where the subjects had to remain still for a length of time in order for the image to be captured. Yet the slightest movement, be it someone scratching his nose, or a person swaying show the group beginning to disintegrate. It is an endurance test for the posers as they have to endure mounting discomfort.

The contrast between the formal class pose and the footage of adults scratching their bums and twitching is again unexpected. Normally you associate the police force with a powerful institution, but this video makes them very human (and I could only watch a 60 second version as the hour long version wasn’t on line).

A concern I have of the Signs and Trauma exhibitions is , while I believe that heavy feelings are probably better out than in, and agree the act of revealing what is hidden is liberating, the information needs to be passed to a safe pair of hands and is Gillian Wearing qualified or skilled enough to deal safely with the outpourings without damage to the person? By all accounts in Trauma she conducts the interviews with sensitivity but is that enough? She also frequently works with more marginalised people in society in order to break down social stereotypes and she herself says that “a great deal of my work is about questioning handed-down truths” and she is always trying to discover new things about people, so in the process to discover more about herself. This, to me, emphasises the need for care and to think first about the people you are working with, and not the goal of another piece of art – the risk of opening a life affecting can of worms is present in this art form.