After Gillian Wearing

Our photography experiment was inspired by Gillian Wearing, and took place outside of a classroom, enabling us to approach a variety of people, where it was the member of the public’s story or expression that was captured. We simply the question “What were you thinking?” and presented the questioned with a blank page and marker pen. While most responses consisted largely of, “I’m cold!” or “I’m freezing!” some of the responses were thoughtful and it was these that made the approach worthwhile.

However, even the brief encounters gave us a lot of information about a person; whether they were shy or confident, how they spoke and what was important to them in life at the moment. My favourite response was that of a man who took a long time to pen the words: “Just going to call my girl to say ‘I love you’”. He, like many others, seemed to find the project really interesting – at one point all the people on the bus were staring at us while we were talking to a mother and child. I suppose while it wasn’t such a normal thing to see on the street, it was the only place to get some real responses and interact with people.

I really enjoyed this project, as it not only provoked some interesting responses in an artistic sense, but helped build confidence personally.

Gillian Wearing

In the past we had all done a live art piece based on Gillian Wearing, however the one we had done was restricted to certain questions. This time around it was open and the participants were free to write anything that they wanted whether from how they were feeling that day to what their reactions were to the live art piece; one man asked us was this really art.

At first I was a bit unsure if anyone would participate because I know how I am when I am approached by salesmen but all the questions that we were unsure of, wouldn’t be answered until we went out their and did it, and surprisingly enough people participated. Once in our first spot we scanned the people to see who we would think take part, already we a having expectations of whether a person is going to do it and what they may say. As a group we tried different approaches, somewhere straight to the point and others more detailed. One that often worked was firstly saying ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello sorry to disturb you, but…’ once we had their attention we then went on to ask if they would take part in out live art piece, it will only take a minute. In some cases we had to write for them as they were in a rush for the bus or to go on with their day bringing live art and it’s meaning together. The more people we asked the more easier it became, the sites were also important we had a lot by the bus stop and by Tesco Metro however I feel it would work a lot better in central London. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I would look at different ways of approaching people to possibly gain more responses.

After Gilian wearing

It’s Thursday 27th November and we as a class have left the comfort of our school grounds and are on a pursuit to Whitehorse. This is in aid of what can only be described as a cross between performance art and a social experiment. "What are you thinking?" A question that echoed throughout every group to the public. Stationed along Whitehorse, my group including Tosin and Eloise, we were directed to ask individuals surrounding the petrol station what they were thinking.
In order to document the people and their responses, we asked them if they could write their thoughts down and hold it up as we photographed them. This is an experiment also conducted by the artist Gillian Wearing, who we were working in the style of.
I really enjoyed this experiment and had no queries with going up to people. I found it worked best to ask individuals if they had time to spare, why I was doing it and to blurt out the question, giving them no time to come up with a though-out response.
People were keen to interact and although we got less exciting answers like "I'm tired" or "I'm cold." We got equally interesting and random thoughts like "I like running for buses" and "Why are you so beautiful?" Proving when you address people politely and with respectfully they can always spare a minute

Biannca Nugent- Visual Arts and Design BTEC student

Year 13 BTEC National Diploma Art and Design: afternoon lesson re-enacting Gillian Wearing's work, Thursday 27th November 2008

As part of Unit 59, Multi-Disciplinary work in Fine Art, students are developing approaches to Live Art exploring different methods of engaging with their audience, both on and off site. In Year 12 for Open evening November 2007, students undertook this work with the prospective students but we were keen to consider with them how the work would change out in the public domain in the schools locality at a junction including areas around shops such as Halfords, Staples, a barbers, bus stops, Tescos.

Posts which follow this entitled 'After Gillian Wearing' are the students recording of the experience.

Some background information:


Wearing’s work demonstrates a complex understanding of the alternately comic and tragic experiences of everyday life. She uses the techniques of documentary photography, film and television to frame the concerns, words and actions of ordinary people, often in everyday situations slightly and often subtly displaced in context. This repositioning creates an uneasy sense in the viewer - it forces us to question our preconceptions in face of the image Wearing presents to us. [Taken from British Council website ]


Thoughts we discussed prior to the re-enactments:

• Evaluating examples of Gillian Wearing's work
• Where? Who to ask, what to ask, how to frame the experience? Ask for email addresses?
• Watching the use of the site first, considering where to ask eg going into and/or out of the station? How does change of site affect responses?
• Short term public engagement, community, social, what are we learning?
• Spontaneous approach
• Strangers more honest than people you know?
• Passers by- transient community?
• Highlighting the human connection between us?