Saturday, February 14, 2009

Gillian Wearing

Emotions manifest themselves in strange ways. Many people parade about displaying a certain personality or image that they feel best represents them. And while we as observers can see these charades, can we really judge others based on our observations? Can we really see and know everything about them?

British conceptual artist Gillian Wearing takes this front on in a rather interesting way. Her world-famous piece Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992-93) consists of a series of photographs that feature a person whom Wearing spontaneously stops on the street or in a public place. The person then writes something they feel or harbor within on a piece of paper and then pose for a photograph while holding the paper up. Some of the end results are witty, others strange, and others unexpected.

It fascinates me when people's exteriors give way to something totally different within. True, some individuals are very what-you-see-is-what-you-get, but at the end of the day, we really shouldn't judge books by their covers.

[Without sounding too cheesy or anything.]

Note: for those of you who are interested, Wearing does not have a personal website, so your best bet for more info would be to run a Google search. Happy hunting.




5 comments:

  1. Bal3aa :P

    interesting ... keep going ..!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is quite the interesting post, see i would say more but you're shunned.
    SHUNNING
    SHUNSHUNSHUNSHUN

    ReplyDelete
  3. the third pic is pointless, unless your point was for us to check-out this strange-looking couple. what is the sheet saying?

    and shouldnt there be a visible link for us to click on so we can easily access this "artist"'s bio or online portfolio?

    interesting blog btw. i hope you dont turn it to a "omg he said this she said this" type of blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. the third pic says "work towards world peace". peace out :o

    ReplyDelete