Gillian Wearing
Encyclopedia
Gillian Wearing OBE
RA (born 1963) is an English
conceptual artist, one of the YBAs
, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
. She moved to Chelsea, London
to study art
at the Chelsea School of Art and later went on to Goldsmiths College
.
into the public eye, including Brilliant!
, held at the Walker Art Center
in 1995 and Sensation, held in London in 1997.
Wearing has acknowledged the influence of 1970s English fly-on-the-wall documentaries such as Michael Apted
's 7-Up, and many of her works have a similar concern with discovering details about individuals. She has said "I'm always trying to find ways of discovering new things about people, and in the process discover more about myself."
This concern can be seen in one of her best known pieces and her first major work, Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992–93), initially shown at the artists-run London gallery City Racing
. This consists of a series of photographs, each showing a member of the public who Wearing had stopped on the street and gotten to spontaneously write something down on a piece of paper. Wearing then photographed the people holding the paper. Some of the results are a little surprising: a smart young man dressed in a business suit holds a sign which reads "I'm desperate", while a police officer has written the single word "Help!". In Wearing's words, "A great deal of my work is about questioning handed-down truths". The work was shown in the 1993 exhibition Okay Behavior at 303 Gallery and helped establish her career as well as that of Adam Chodzko
, Mathew Hale and Bill Burns
.
Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say was, Wearing claimed, overtly pastiched in a British advertising campaign for the VW Golf (an automobile) made by agency BMP DDB. Commenting on this turn of events Wearing said, "What really hurts is that it stops me doing my work because people [now] think I'm working for an advertising agency."
In 1994, Wearing made a series of videos of people who responded to an advertisement in Time Out asking for people to "Confess all on video". Several people came forward and confessed to various things, some to past wrong-doings, some to on-going vices. All were disguised by wearing comic masks. Also in 1994, Wearing made Dancing in Peckham, a video of herself dancing in the middle of a shopping centre in Peckham
.
As well as these pieces which concentrate on individuals, Wearing has made pieces that concentrate on groups of people. One, Sixty Minute Silence (1996) is a video of people dressed in police uniforms sitting as if for a group photograph for an hour. Their initial stillness eventually gives way to fidgeting. For Wearing, "The piece is about authority, restraint, and control."
in 1997, among a shortlist of four artists who were all female. This initially caused discussion in the media with some accusing the all-female selection as an overt act of political correction--after an all-male shortlist in 1996. For Wearing, "When the nomination was first announced, a lot of the argument about us being women was dropped as soon as people saw the show. No one actually relates the gender to the work. It only seemed a contentious issue if you didn’t see the art. At the end of the day, people who had seen the show talked about it in different terms."
Sixty minute silence and Sacha and Mum were two of the video artworks exhibited for the exhibition of the shortlisted artists held at the Tate Gallery
in London.
In Wearing’s Broad Street (2001), she documents the behavior of typical teenagers, in British society, who go out at night and drink large amounts of alcohol. Wearing shows teenagers partying at various clubs and bars along Broad Street in Birmingham. Wearing follows these teenagers demonstrating how alcohol contributes to their loss of inhibitions, insecurities, and control.
In 2003, Wearing caused controversy with her cover for The Guardian
s G2 supplement, consisting solely of the handwritten words "Fuck Cilla Black
". The cover illustrated an article by Stuart Jeffries complaining about the cruelty of modern television.
The themes of modern television were further explored in Wearing's recent project Family History (2006) commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, and accompanied by a publication on the project.
Gillian Wearing is represented by Maureen Paley
in London and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
in New York.
Wearing was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours
for services to art.
. Her current partner is fellow British artist Michael Landy
.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
RA (born 1963) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
conceptual artist, one of the YBAs
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Early life
Gillian Wearing was born in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. She moved to Chelsea, London
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
to study art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
at the Chelsea School of Art and later went on to Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
.
1990s
Her work was included in several of the shows which brought the Young British ArtistsYoung British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
into the public eye, including Brilliant!
Brilliant!
Brilliant! was a group exhibition of contemporary art held at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA between 22 October, 1995 and 7 January, 1996...
, held at the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
in 1995 and Sensation, held in London in 1997.
Wearing has acknowledged the influence of 1970s English fly-on-the-wall documentaries such as Michael Apted
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
's 7-Up, and many of her works have a similar concern with discovering details about individuals. She has said "I'm always trying to find ways of discovering new things about people, and in the process discover more about myself."
This concern can be seen in one of her best known pieces and her first major work, Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992–93), initially shown at the artists-run London gallery City Racing
City Racing
City Racing was an artist run space in Kennington, South London which was active between 1988 and 1998. It was a cooperative by five artists Matt Hale, Paul Noble, John Burgess, Keith Coventry and Peter Owen. They set up the gallery in a former betting shop near the Oval cricket ground, hence the...
. This consists of a series of photographs, each showing a member of the public who Wearing had stopped on the street and gotten to spontaneously write something down on a piece of paper. Wearing then photographed the people holding the paper. Some of the results are a little surprising: a smart young man dressed in a business suit holds a sign which reads "I'm desperate", while a police officer has written the single word "Help!". In Wearing's words, "A great deal of my work is about questioning handed-down truths". The work was shown in the 1993 exhibition Okay Behavior at 303 Gallery and helped establish her career as well as that of Adam Chodzko
Adam Chodzko
Adam Chodzko is a contemporary British multi-media artist, exhibiting internationally.-Work:Adam Chodzko was born in London, England...
, Mathew Hale and Bill Burns
Bill Burns (artist)
Bill Burns is a Canadian artist.-Life and work:Bill Burns was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1957 and has lived and worked mostly in Toronto, Canada and London, England.Proving Machine and Floatation Device no.3, 2008...
.
Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say was, Wearing claimed, overtly pastiched in a British advertising campaign for the VW Golf (an automobile) made by agency BMP DDB. Commenting on this turn of events Wearing said, "What really hurts is that it stops me doing my work because people [now] think I'm working for an advertising agency."
In 1994, Wearing made a series of videos of people who responded to an advertisement in Time Out asking for people to "Confess all on video". Several people came forward and confessed to various things, some to past wrong-doings, some to on-going vices. All were disguised by wearing comic masks. Also in 1994, Wearing made Dancing in Peckham, a video of herself dancing in the middle of a shopping centre in Peckham
Peckham
Peckham is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Southwark. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
.
As well as these pieces which concentrate on individuals, Wearing has made pieces that concentrate on groups of people. One, Sixty Minute Silence (1996) is a video of people dressed in police uniforms sitting as if for a group photograph for an hour. Their initial stillness eventually gives way to fidgeting. For Wearing, "The piece is about authority, restraint, and control."
Winning the Turner Prize (1997)
Wearing won the Turner PrizeTurner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
in 1997, among a shortlist of four artists who were all female. This initially caused discussion in the media with some accusing the all-female selection as an overt act of political correction--after an all-male shortlist in 1996. For Wearing, "When the nomination was first announced, a lot of the argument about us being women was dropped as soon as people saw the show. No one actually relates the gender to the work. It only seemed a contentious issue if you didn’t see the art. At the end of the day, people who had seen the show talked about it in different terms."
Sixty minute silence and Sacha and Mum were two of the video artworks exhibited for the exhibition of the shortlisted artists held at the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
in London.
2000s
In 2000, Wearing made a film, Drunk (2000), which shows four drunk men staggering around a studio.In Wearing’s Broad Street (2001), she documents the behavior of typical teenagers, in British society, who go out at night and drink large amounts of alcohol. Wearing shows teenagers partying at various clubs and bars along Broad Street in Birmingham. Wearing follows these teenagers demonstrating how alcohol contributes to their loss of inhibitions, insecurities, and control.
In 2003, Wearing caused controversy with her cover for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s G2 supplement, consisting solely of the handwritten words "Fuck Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
". The cover illustrated an article by Stuart Jeffries complaining about the cruelty of modern television.
The themes of modern television were further explored in Wearing's recent project Family History (2006) commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, and accompanied by a publication on the project.
Gillian Wearing is represented by Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in Bethnal Green, London, where she lives. It was founded in 1984, called Interim Art during the 1990s, and renamed Maureen Paley in 2004. She exhibited Young British Artists at an early stage...
in London and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is an art gallery located in Chelsea in New York City founded by Tanya Bonakdar. Since its inception in 1994, the gallery has maintained a consistent and rigorous program in the exhibition of new work by contemporary artists in all media, including painting, sculpture,...
in New York.
Wearing was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours
2011 Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours 2011 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 7 June 2011 in New Zealand and 11 June 2011 in United Kingdom to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2011.-Privy Councillors:...
for services to art.
Personal life
Wearing was the long term partner of fellow British artist Mark WallingerMark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...
. Her current partner is fellow British artist Michael Landy
Michael Landy
Michael Landy RA is one of the Young British Artists . He is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down , in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the Art Bin project at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008 Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in...
.