“Gillian Wearing and Vanessa Beecroft Question Society’s Values”

Through art work, including performance art, Gillian Wearing and Vanessa Beecroft try to make a statement about the world they live in. Whether it is a statement about race, ethnicity, culture, gender, or social norms, Wearing and Beecroft are more than willing to express their opinions through their own, original pieces. By doing this, not only has it redefined what “art” means, it also drew attention to topics that still remain an issue in today’s society. It is evident through Wearing and Beecroft’s art work that they truly value the questioning of society and its ideals, and wish to challenge the current stereotypes that define different groups within society.
Gillian Wearing, who was born in the United States and moved to London to study art at universities there, started as a learning art student and turned artist who truly put her heart and opinions into her shocking pieces. Wearing is known as a conceptual artist who questions “concepts” and “ideals” that make up society. Through her hard work and dedication, she is a recipient of the Turner Prize. Through Wearing’s art work, she is known for choosing an aspect of society in which people generally consider to be truth, and prove it wrong through her pieces. Also, Wearing is known to exploit issues within society through her art work by letting the public display their feelings about it. By getting the public involved, it seems to be that her art work sometimes involves performance art. Also, by including the public, her art work is more apt to have an effect on a greater range of viewers because the common people have a say in her work. During one of her pieces, created in 1994, Wearing focuses on the issue of “confession” within a church setting. She exploits the idea that everyday people will most likely not confess what they are truly feeling to someone who knows who they actually are. So, within Wearing’s piece Confess All On Video. Don't Worry You Will Be in Disguise. Intrigued?, Wearing chooses people to confess on camera while she distorts their images. Thus, these subjects are free to confess anything that they want. By doing this, Wearing not only makes a statement by allowing these people to confess what they want, but also makes another statement by questioning and even mocking the whole idea of confessing within the church setting. Thus, she is trying to question values that are presented within society at that time. Similarly, she uncovers stereotypes in another of her conceptual art pieces, Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say, by reinventing the notion, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” What I mean by this is, is that she allowed random people on the street to write what they were thinking at that moment on a piece of paper and hold it up for a picture to be taken of them and their sign. While some people wrote what one would expect them to have written based on their race, gender, or even the clothing they were wearing, some people’s statements went against what anyone would have expected. For example, a woman in a fancy suit wrote, “I’m desperate,” which does not represent what people would think he would have been thinking at that time. With a nice suit, one would assume he had money and a good job, but apparently he was desperate within his own life at this time. Through Wearing’s work, she tried to prove general stereotypes wrong and provide the public with a chance to understand that everything is not as it seems.
Similarly, Vanessa Beecroft, an Italian contemporary artist, uses a bit of performance art and conceptual art to interact with a larger audience. While Wearing focuses on stereotypes and issues within society in general, Beecroft focuses most of her art work on women and gender issues. She likes to portray women as powerful people who remain united against all else. She hires models who usually stand naked and motionless in front of a live audience. The models do not make eye contact with anyone in particular, and stand as long as they can until they get too tired. Once they get too tired, the “piece of live art,” shifts and the change is noticeable to the audience. Beecroft focuses on the connection between the models, the audience, and her. Through these art pieces, Beecroft questions the larger issue of gender identity. I found one of her pieces to be particularly shocking and interesting. Her piece, Vanessa Beecroft Performance Piece For Shinsegae Department Store, shows rows of 31 women that are either dressed in mostly red, a mixture of red and gold, or all gold. The women who are a mix between red and gold stand in the middle of the rows. By doing this, Beecroft shows how although something is splitting the women in half, the women in the middle are drawing together similarities that eventually unite them all. As they all stand there for hours on end trying not to move, they eventually tilt toward each other which shows the larger message of togetherness and unity. They need each other’s support to survive in today’s world. Beecroft also includes the public as viewers within her performance pieces, thus spreading her message to many people.
Overall, I really enjoy researching and analyzing pieces that truly involve larger messages involving stereotypes and issues within today’s society. I think a small performance piece or conceptual art piece can have a powerful effect on the public, especially if the public is included. Once the public hears these messages, they can not only spread this message but also feel involved in art themselves. This is an excellent way to spread the value of art throughout the world.

~Kara Livingston