Me: Let’s start by introducing the fact that I am using an interview technique to write about my work. This allows me to prompt myself and also at times meander, go off and back on a topic, change the subject, all the things that are allowed in an interview but would be suspect in an artist’s statement. Me: I want to talk about the series of photographs that are in the show at IVAM and that are part of Album 2003-2006. It consists of self portraits of you as your mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, grandmother and grandfather and yourself at 17. How did this idea begin? Me: I had been going through an old box of photographs in 2002, it was something I was doing just to idle my time away. The photographs covered a few generations of my family and friends. I came across one of my mother, it was a very familiar image, the only thing was that she wasn’t my mother yet, not when the photograph was taken in the 1950’s, a decade before I was born. I had looked and studied the image as a little girl and in the intervening years I had aged it in my imagination until she was middle aged. In 2002 for the very first time I saw a womanin the photo who was much younger than me. I was the older woman,38 years old, holding an image of my mother who was 23 at the time. It was a revelation, it was as if my eyes had become magnifying glassesand it was in that moment I decided to become her. To reappraise both my new found sensitivity but also to try and acquaint myself with this young woman by Enacting the briefest moments of her life even thoughI knew nothing of her then.I did not know what her dreams were or her disappointments, struggles etc. My impression from the photographwas that she was pretty and happy. I built a picture from this of someone quite innocent and naive. I knew from the start I wanted to wear a mask that was sculpted to look like her at that point in her life, with only my eyes and the cutout holes around them being visible. There is something disconcerting looking at what appears to be flesh but is actually silicone frozen into an expression of naturalness. I now think of this portrait as if it were the original photograph. I own it and have transferred my identity onto it. Me: Was this the same for the other members of your family? Me: It was for my father, uncle, grandmother and grandfather I did not know them at the time of their photographs, late youth early adulthood or in my grandparents case middle age. But I did of course know my brother, sister and myself. My brothers photograph was based on a snapshot my mother took. I always loved this image as it felt very contemporary, it was taken in 1990. I remember seeing it then and wanting to make an artwork from it, I just didn’t know what. You would have thought it was an image taken by one of my brothers friends rather than his mother, he is captured in a private moment brushing his hair and preparing for a night out with his mates. It is opposite of the carefully staged studio portrait of my mother. Here is a young man with all his detritus around him, clothes strewn on the bed, a pint of beer, keys and pen on the window ledge, VHS tapes and grooming products on the side table. It is a tableaux. It’s these imperfect un-staged snapshots that I find so fascinating as they offer us clues to a person’s identity, interests and desires. 10 MEE:: MEE:: MEE:: Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing
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