EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED IN LIFE THE POINT IS TO KNOW IT AND TO UNDERSTAND IT

Gillian Wearing (1963 - )

C-type photographic print

1992-3

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© Gillian Wearing, courtesy Maureen Paley, London, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Downing Street
    From a photographic series of the 1990s, this photograph by Gillian Wearing depicts one of several members of the British public who she randomly invited to write down what they felt or thought at the moment of asking. The philosophical message displayed here has an air of revelatory self-help, presented cheerfully by a young man. Other works in the series feature a city banker declaring ‘I’m desperate’; and a policeman revealing ‘Help’. Wearing’s works capture the constant hum of emotion and anxiety that lie beneath the surface of ‘normal’ life.
  • About the artist
    Born in Birmingham in 1963, Gillian Wearing studied at Chelsea School of Art and Design before attending Goldsmiths College where she was associated with the ‘Young British Artists’ or ‘YBA’ generation. Since then, Wearing has gained international recognition, winning the Turner Prize in 1997. A major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2012 later toured to Düsseldorf and Munich in 2013. In 2017, the National Portrait Gallery held the exhibition ‘Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask’ that explored shared issues of identity and gender. Wearing’s sculpture of Millicent Fawcett was unveiled in Parliament Square, London, in 2018 to mark the centenary of the Representation of the People Act of 1918.
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  • Details
    Title
    EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED IN LIFE THE POINT IS TO KNOW IT AND TO UNDERSTAND IT
    Series Title
    Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say
    Edition
    6/10
    Date
    1992-3
    Medium
    C-type photographic print
    Dimensions
    height: 12 cm, width: 80 cm
    Acquisition
    Presented via the Government Art Collection / Outset fund, December 2017
    Provenance
    Maureen Paley
    GAC number
    18734