Review: Gillian Wearing at Whitechapel Gallery
If you haven’t already been to see it, I highly recommend Gillian Wearing’s solo exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery.
The exhibition is a great escape into the a retrospective of Wearing’s films and the lives of others, showcasing her early work in the 90s right up to clips from her most recent film Self Made.
Wearing’s work expands the usual art gallery audience and is about something we are all naturally interested in but would otherwise not get the opportunity to see. As a stranger to each of the films characters, we peep into the lives of others to discover information that we have not earned the right to. It’s sad, funny, depressing, disgusting, shocking, intelligent, and uplifting but mainly it’s relatable; we are also people and like those in Wearing’s films, we also have public personas and private personas with things we choose to share and things we do not.
In her work Wearing creates opportunities for people to face something from the inside out. She draws our attention to specific characters and human experiences and relationships that may not be seen as ‘everyday’ but are actually more ‘everyday’ the longer you think about them. Her ability to feature, highlight and explore people through role play, interactions and the use of film is what makes her projects really interesting and really, about every single one of us.
The show closes 17 June, more information can be found here.