Tell Gillian
A thought provoking study visit to the Whitechapel yesterday. One of the objectives of the study visits is to reflect on the experience of seeing photography and video in a gallery and there was certainly plenty to reflect on here. Michael Lawton from the gallery drew our attention to the way the downstairs space had been divided up so that there was a sense of being backstage – the very layout of the exhibition picking up on Wearing’s interest in the work of Erving Goffman (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life) with its notions of performance and ‘front’.
I couldn’t help noticing that that the one image visible on entering the gallery was a larger than life photograph of Gillian Wearing in a mask which appeared to serve no appearance changing purpose. It simply hid her face with a replica of her face. The room may have been set up to give the impression of being backstage, but Winston Smith like, Gillian was watching and we were very clearly led to understand that we were frontstage.
This was an exhibition which demanded time to appreciate it fully, so after a general overview from Michael and the opportunity for discussion over coffee, we watched just one video all the way through as a group. 10-16 takes you from ‘Well I have a tree house and it’s out in the back. I use wood, metal, plastic and things like that. It’s fun and joyful and…’ to ‘It’s the only part of my body I don’t feel a sense of shame about’. The comic effect of hearing a ten year old boy’s words mouthed by an adult actor being replaced by something more moving as we see Gillian apparently interviewing a middle aged man in a suit while hearing the words of a 16 year old talk of his obesity, bullying and confused feelings on sex.
Possibly a challenging visit for those just starting their studies with the OCA, but a rich seam of ideas on how to communicate complex ideas?
[Photo credit: Amano]
19 thoughts on “Tell Gillian”
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Tad beat me to it with his reflections, which are here
Thanks Gareth – had a great day.
Still working on my reflections but my pics of some of the group are here:
http://helenphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/gillian-wearing-study-tour-photographs.html
Good photos again Helen, which made me smile, esp. no 10 🙂
A pleasure as always Garath. Thanks for yesterday. My thoughts http://www.nineelmsphotography.com/blog/?p=708
Plus the magnum 62 exhibition was good.
Great images Helen. The B&W works really well
Really enjoyed the exhibition too. I have put my thoughts on my blog here. (BTW I think that some people’s ‘backstage’ is other people’s frontstage, Gareth.)
Another worthwhile OCA study day …
http://amanostudy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=571&action=edit&message=1
My blog of the event also includes a pre-blog of before I saw the exhibition.
This was my first study visit after learning with the OCA for more than a year and what a great day it was! Apart the challenging nature of the Wearing exhibition, the most important aspect of the day was that I came away with a feeling of belonging. Everyone was very approachable and the discussions flowed naturally, Gareth was very forthcoming with his advice and fellow students continued to provide ideas and encouragement.
I agree it felt really friendly and I enjoyed talking to everyone.
It was a very interesting day, and great to meet everyone and chat. the only downside for me is that there wasn’t a chance to speak to everyone but hopefully over future visits there will be more opportunities. I am very tempted to read all those write-ups but trying hard to resist until I have written mine.
Tell Gillian what Gareth?
That would be telling Stephanie!
It was great to meet up with people and put some more new faces to names. Like Eileen I’m sorry I didn’t get the opportunity speak to everyone. I came away with mixed feelings about Gillian Wearing. I think she’s very talented and creative, yet I’m not sure about her methods. For me the use of masks distanced me from the words and feelings of the subjects and made me feel more like a spectator than entering into their worlds. My blog is
http://catherinebanks.wordpress.com/
It’s my new Blog for People& Place so this is its first outing!
Thanks again Gareth and Clive for hosting the day for us.
“the use of masks distanced me from the words and feelings of the subjects and made me feel more like a spectator than entering into their worlds” — couldn’t that be at least part of the point?
Well yes, that could be Gillian Wearing’s point, although she doesn’t say that anywhere I can find. I suppose I could also query whether she herself feels a spectator rather than a participant in her own world and other peoples.
Heres my tuppence worth—http://vickifoto.co.uk/2012/05/03/gillian-wearing/—actually it’s a bit long. So if you get through it, I owe you a tipple after the next outing!
Well it took me a week of thinking about it and 2 days to write but it eventually got posted…..
http://janfairburnoca.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/gillian-wearing-whitechapel-gallery.html
Plenty of raw data around Gillian Wearing out there, here’s my outline of the day..
http://darcyblog.wordpress.com/
This quite easily captured several weeks of my desired study time and was probably the most useful OCA activity I’ve experienced, both in the day itself, and the research around Wearing’s work. I stopped at 2,000 words only because I need to get my assignments finished and forwarded. I think that previous OCA work is starting to register within me and I’m becoming more focused on specific work rather than scatter-gunning as before. Hope it continues..
Am in being cynical—noting tonight’s coverage of the ‘7UP’ now ’56UP’? It has been said that some of Wearing’s initial inspiration for her documentary work came from this series. And now we have a retrospective of Wearing’s work coinciding with this. Or maybe it’s just been a hard day!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18010724