Gillian Wearing - Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not
Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say.

I recently seen this piece in the Tate Liverpool, I was immediately intrigued by the piece, It was a series of photographs of everyday people captured in the street, each person, couple, child was individual.

I had to admire the way Wearing was able to produce these pieces, if you were normally approached by someone in the street i often think they are trying to sell me something, trying to get me to sign my name away to a charity. But Wearing approached people asking them to write anything that creates a different relationship between them and whoever was asking the question. With responses like 'I'm desperate' and 'Everything is connected in life the point is to know and understand it' and 'I have been certified as mildly insane!' All these pieces immediately create a relationship between the person that has been asked the question and the person that is posing the question. It creates a somewhat tense atmosphere as the people in the piece almost seem to reveal a side to them that is very personal which gives them a certain vulnerability to the viewer.