Gillian Wearing: Family Stories

Jacob Fabricius, Marianne Torp & Mikkel Bogh 

Hardcover | 21.59 x 1.27 x 29.97 cm | 126 pp

Hatje Cantz | 2017 | 9783775743709

What does “family” mean today? Which notions and prejudices come to light with it? How is modern family life shaped these days? In her project A Real Danish Family, the British artist Gillian Wearing asks these questions in ways that are both artistic and thought-provoking.

The eponymous sculpture portrays a Danish family selected from 492 participating families of the most diverse composition. The exhibition Family Stories, which opened when the sculpture was unveiled in the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen   also revolves around the family as the crystallisation point for inter-human relationships. Photographs, videos, and sculptures explore relatedness and identity, and include the artist’s own family as an example.

In a series of “self-portraits” Gillian Wearing uses masks to slip into the roles of her siblings, parents, and grandparents. This book examines Wearing’s work and the theme of the family through the lens of art history, and traces the course of A Real Danish Family, a project that boldly questions patterns of thought in society.