Gillian Wearing - Video Confessions

I am really intrigued by Gillian Wearing's video confessions, to achieve this, she released an advert, which became the title of the work, ran "Confess all on video. Don't worry you'll be in disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian ... "
The volunteers were dressed in disguises with wigs, masks and other disguises to hide their identity.

They were filmed making confessions which ranged from tales of theft, revenge, betrayal and sexual perversion. Wearing's work reminds me of another artist's work called Frank Warren.
Warren invited people to take part in a community art project; he printed and distributed 3,000 self addressed postcards inviting people to anonymously share a secret with him. The response was phenomenal and Warren created a series of books called ‘PostSecrets’ documenting the responses he received. There was no restriction on what the content should be; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before. Entries ranged from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits to hopes and dreams.

POSTSECRETS

These two artworks are really similar except one takes the form of video art while the other drawn art; yet both cover the same subject. It is amazing that we can discover what admissions people will confess while under disguise or knowing that their identity will never be revealed. It is hard to detach yourself from the PostSecrets and Wearings Confessions because they are issues which the viewer can associate with, which is why they are so successful and popular works of art.