The Idea of What it Means to be Public

"Man is least himself when he is asked to speak about himself, give him a mask and he will tell the truth"- Oscar Wilde. Gillian Wearing is a conceptual artist who represents the idea of what it means to be public. She takes personal feelings and emotions, and makes them public through her photographs of people in the street with a sign of what they are feeling at the time. She said the signs represents what you want them to say not what other people want them to say. She doesn't give the people time to think about what they want to write because making it literal makes it lose its meaning. Wearing wants her work to speak the truth, and some of her photographs are a little shocking and ironic. There is a young well dressed business man who is holding up a sign that says "I'm desperate", and there is a police officer who is holding up a sign that says "Help." The reality of these photographs represent how the spotlight is now on the public with the art world today and that the intimacy of art is expansive. Personally I feel like her artwork really brings out human emotions when looking at it, because with the irony of having a police officer ask for help, and a business man saying he is desperate, it shows that it is hard to know yourself when you are inside of yourself.