‘Everything is connected in life...’
- Artist: Gillian Wearing CBE
- Date: 1992–3
- Medium: Photograph, colour, chromogenic print, on paper
- Dimensions: frame: 1325 x 925 x 45 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Everything is connected in life…” by Gillian Wearing. The piece is a photograph from her 1992–93 “Signs” series, where she stood on a busy London street, asked random passers‑by to jot down whatever was on their mind, then captured them holding the written message. The result is a snapshot of public and private identity, a visual diary of ordinary people during a period of economic uncertainty. You can see a wide range of participants: an elderly couple on a curb saying “I like to be in the country”, a homeless man with a line that reads “I signed on and they would not give me nothing”, and a sharply dressed young man holding a simple but striking sign: “I’m desperate”. Wearing’s intent was to disrupt the conventional documentary logic, inviting subjects to engineer their own representation and revealing how personal truths can surface in everyday life. The series documents not only the recession of the early 1990s but also the intimate thoughts people carry with them. In short, it’s a clever, honest conversation between the photographer and the public, and a reminder that even in mundane moments, there are powerful stories waiting to be shared.
See it in person
‘Everything is connected in life...’ is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
