Gillian Wearing

Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say (1992–3)

Wearing's work was driven by her interest of people, she loved to discover new things about people and whilst doing so she felt she discovered more about herself. I believe that it was this pure interest which allowed this series of photographs to become so iconic and brilliant. When approached in the street it is normally by people trying to sell you something, whether it be a subscription to sky, a big issue or asking you to sponsor a child; no wonder we all hate these situations. However when Wearing approached the public she asked something quite shocking and unusual, she asked them to write down their thoughts. In some ways I feel that this proposition could scare more people away than a charity worker carrying a clip board, but it was her personal interest that allowed these people similar in nature to allow themselves to express themselves. This relationship between Wearing and the public seemed to beneficial to all involved, Wearing’s proposition allowed the public to express themselves in an artist manner whilst this created Wearing’s own artist expression. It was this interaction and connection between artist and public which made the work so simple, truthful and significant.

I like Wearings work as she helped people to express themselves in times before the likes of twitter and facebook. People often criticise these social network sites as they question just who actually cares? Who wants to read about how other peoples days are going or their random thoughts? But in truth alot of people do, why do you think celeb gossip mags are as popular as they are? Because everybody enjoys reading about other peoples lives, whether its because they have completely different lives to you and you find it interesting or whether its a way to escape from your thoughts about your own life. We're made to care about other people.

I find Wearings work inspiring as she has basically done what my project is about, however before its time. I wanted to take peoples tweets out of the virtual world and into reality however Wearing saw the importance of real people in the real world before the age of social networking sites. And I would be interested to hear her views on such things. I can take inspiration between the connection of artist and public and the raw essence of pen, paper and photography.