Gillian Wearing

‘Gillian Wearing digs up her past for tilt at Vincent Award’

‘Gillian Wearing is posing as herself from 30 years ago in a piece called Me as an Artist in 1984 which is ironic since, at the time, such a career path had not even crossed her mind.’ Brown M (2014)

Having already won the prestigious Turner Prize, Gillian Wearing was shortlisted as one of five, set to win the Dutch Vincent Award, created to celebrate mid-career artists whose work is considered influential to the development of contemporary art in Europe. She celebrated by revisiting works from her past in which she wore masks of family members in order to question her role in family history. On this occasion however, Wearing wore a mask of herself from thirty years ago, she also donned the masks of her personal heroes, Dianne Arbus and Robert Mapplethorpe. Wearing explained that she had spent so much time looking at their work, they felt like family; I suppose they have played a part in who she is today, as a photographer and maybe as a person.

The process of creating the portraits was painstaking, using the skills of a sculptor, painters and a wig maker. A face cast of Wearing was created with the masks sculpted on top to enable her to wear the mask with a snug fit; the masks were eventually glued into place for the shoot. Due to the material of the masks not absorbing light like real skin, lighting had to be modified.

Although the family members were different ages, Wearing used images of them all in their late teens to early twenties, including her parents, making them appear equal. Due to a lack of photographs of her grandparents at a younger age, she opted to create older models of them; this gave them presumed roles of matriarch and patriarch.

It is said that Wearing used this series of images to explore her role in the history of her family; I’m really not sure if she achieved this. I appreciate the work that has gone into it, I think it’s done remarkably well but apart from being slightly creeped out by a couple of them, they don’t anything for me emotionally. If these images are addressing wider issues, it’s going right over my head.

References

• Brown M. (2014) Gillian Wearing digs up her past for tilt at Vincent Award [online]. At http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/sep/08/gillian-wearing-shortlist-vincent-award (accessed 31/8/15)

• Paley M (2012) Gillian Wearing takeover: behind the mask – the Self Portraits [online]. At http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/mar/27/gillian-wearing-takeover-mask (accessed 31/8/15)