Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing is photographer and filmmaker that documents shocking, and sometimes amusing behaviour of the people of Britain. Wearing is interested in society and the British public. Most famously Wearing stopped the general public and encouraged them to write the first thing that came into their heads onto a piece of paper, and then would photograph them with it. The piece became a social commentary as it revealed the private thoughts of the public and brought them into the public sphere.

In the piece Broad Street, 2001, Wearing presented a six-screen colour video projection which lasted 40 minutes, and depicted the social scene of Broad Street in Birmingham on an average night. The piece showed people drinking, smoking, dancing and getting in and out of taxis. Unfortunately I haven't actually seen the piece within the gallery context - I have had to interpret it mainly from stills of it in books and online, so therefore my perceptions will be skewed. Apparently the surrounding video projections caused the viewer to be disorientated, - almost replicating the feeling of being inebriated and in a busy club. I, too, have been looking at creating the effect of a 'drunken haze' by using blurry lights; sometimes soft, and sometimes eratic. I also blur other parts of the image and erase other parts to further the effect. Wearing chose to film Birmingham as it is her hometown; and she wanted to show the culture of nightlife that was happening here at the time. I'm interested in creating work for the same reasons - I have also been creating work based on Birmingham Broad Street, as I want to look at the student nightlife and binge-drinking culture that is currently happening in Birmingham. The reason that I am interested in Birmingham is that I'm interested in the city, as well as the crossover of personal and collective memories of myself and other students living here for University. I have been taking my own photos and stills from videos similar to Wearing, but also collecting images from the media and online. Looking back at Wearing's work now, (at Broad Street, which is over ten years old), it really sums up an era. The fashion; hairstyles and people smoking indoors are all giveaways to the time in which the video refers to; even if at the time it was just 'current'. I want to sum up recent years in Birmingham in the same way - using similar hints to the time and place. Wearing's aim is to honestly depict life and life around her; which is really what I want to do. I am interested in the shared experiences of today and of recent times - drawing inspiration from society.