Research Component

For my final project I chose to do an artist who was not mentioned in my last blog post. The artist's name is Gillian Wearing and I discovered her through the always helpful google. I stumbled upon an article in The Times magazine in which Wearing was referred to as one of the most artist of the modern day. Looking further into her work I was intrigued. To me her most standout piece was Self Portrait as my Brother out of her Album series. This is a photo that stars Wearing wearing a complete silicone body suit made to look exactly like her brother.


Above is the photo. In order to create my paper I need to find enough resources to understand exactly how Wearing makes the suit and takes the photo. This process has proved to me much longer than I ever expected. To help me begin my research I found an step by step tutorial by Wearing herself going through certain aspects of her process:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2012/mar/27/gillian-wearing-takeover-mask#/?picture=387780737&index=7

In this link Wearing goes through what she has to do at each step. She speaks about how she must make a silicone cast of herself and well as the person she is trying to inhabit. She also talks about where she got the original photo of her brother and how the piece she is making is made to be an exact replica of a photo that her mom took in the 90's.

http://www.mattlippiatt.co.uk/Gillian%20Wearing%20extended.htm

This is another link I am going to use in my paper. It contains an interview with Wearing where she talks about the connotation of the piece. She tells the inerviewer that she feels as if she forms certain bonds with others and she feels a part of them inside herself, that is the message the photo is sending. There are parts of others inside us all.

http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/en/guia-educadores/gillian-wearing-self-portrait-as-my-uncle-bryan-gregory-2003/#activities

In this link a bit more about Wearings process is revealed. This link states that the process begins with the sculpture, and also talks about the team of artist Wearing must hire in order to help her create her mask and the sculptures. The price of each piece and the amount of time it takes to create them is also revealed

http://www.vanessa-pooley-bronze-sculptures.com/how-to-make-a-sculpture.html
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/videos/how-to-life-cast-character-creation-tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M400dj19nUs

These are three links that are all step by step tutorials on how to complete a specific part of Wearing's process, including the materials and methods needed. One is on making clay sculptures, the next is one life casting, which is creating a silicone mold of a person and the final link is on basic silicone casting

http://www.contemporary-magazines.com/profile55.htm

This last like I plan to use helps to infer how the two silicone pieces and made into one ultimate body suit or mask. It speaks vaguely about a combining off the two molds to create a final product in which the interior is a mold of Wearing's body, but the outside is a replica of the clay model of her brother.