"In fact I have used paint and glue to bend them and paint the petals so they become individual flowers. Otherwise they would all look identical, which is not how flowers are in life. So in a sense I am making them look almost surreal, not like natural flowers but heightened, using traditional art techniques." —Gillian Wearing
As one of the Young British Artists who rose to fame in the late 1990s, buoyed by the support and patronage of Charles Saatchi, Gillian Wearing's name has became synonymous with performance. As a conceptual artist working in photography, sculpture and film, her work explores identity as a construct and examines the tension between the individual and society.
In the present lot, the classic floral still life takes on new meaning when filtered through Wearing's lens. It is not an immoralization of fleeting beauty but an examination of the details that distinguish each flower, each petal from the next. In People, 2011, Wearing replaced her human figures with a bouquet of floral varieties but the intent and focus of her earlier work carries through as she handles every stem in a meticulous manner, highlighting the uniqueness of each.
Another print of this image is currently on view through June 13th in Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.