In some ways Gillian Wearing’s suited man holding up a sign saying ‘I’m Desperate’ came to represent a post-market-crash, recession sentiment. He might have been desperate for love, or desperate for his next sale, whichever: like many in the rat race he was on a treadmill – making him frantic but getting him nowhere. Gillian Wearing’s Signs That Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs That Say What Someone Else Wants You to Say tapped into a mood and was part of the next wave of British social realism, building upon a legacy that stretches back to the 19th century rural disenfranchised in early industrial Britain. Flash forward to the ‘90s, and Britain was post-industrial and struggling to pull itself out of recession. Art that was spare and built upon the economy of humanity would rise in response.
Juliana Engberg is a curator, writer, publisher and designer, she is the Artistic Director of ACCA and was the Artistic Director of the 19th Biennale of Sydney, 2014.
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