Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing (born 1963)an English artist.BornBirmingham, Wearing movedChelseastudy artlater wentGoldsmiths College. She exhibited inshows which broughtso-called Young British Artists intopublic eye, Brilliant! (1995)MinneapolisSensation (1997)London.
Wearing has acknowledgedinfluence1970s English fly-on-the-wall documentaries such as Michael Apted's 7-Up,manyher works havesimilar concerndiscovering details about individuals. She has said "I'm always tryingfind waysdiscovering new things about people,inprocess discover more about myself".
This concern can be seenoneher best known piecesher first major work, Signs that say what you want themsaynot Signs that say what someone else wants yousay (1992-93), initially shown atartists-run London gallery City Racing. This consists ofseriesphotographs, each showingmember ofpublic who Wearing had stopped onstreetgotspontaneously write something down onpiecepaper. Wearing then photographedpeople holdingpaper. Some ofresults arelittle surprising:smart young man dressed inbusiness suit holdssign which reads "I'm desperate", whilepoliceman has writtensingle word "Help!". In Wearing's words, "A great dealmy workabout questioning handed-down truths". This piece was so well known asbe virtually completely copied forBritish television advertising campaign by Volkswagen.
In 1994, Wearing madeseriesvideospeople who respondedan advertisementTime Out askingpeople"Confess all on video". Several people came forwardconfessedvarious things, somepast wrong-doings, someon-going vices. All were disguised by wearing comic masks. Also1994, Wearing made DancingPeckham,videoherself dancing inmiddle ofshopping centrePeckham.
As well as these pieces which concentrate on individuals, Wearing has made pieces were concentrate on groupspeople. One, Sixty Minute Silence (1996) isvideopeople dressedpolice uniforms sitting as if forgroup photographan hour. Their initial stillness eventually gives wayfidgeting. Her film Drunk (2000) isfour drunk men staggering aroundstudio.
Wearing wonTurner Prize1997.
