Dancing in Peckham
1994
Video, 00:25:00.
Materials:
Collection: Courtesy of the Artist.
Wearings's video Dancing in Peckham portrays the artist dancing inside a shopping centre in South London. Shoppers walk by, some bemused and others indifferent,
as she sways amateurishly to the sounds of music tracks she imagines in her head. Wearing was inspired by a woman she saw dancing wildly at the Royal Festival
Hall in London, oblivious to other people ridiculing her. “This woman caught my eye. She was completely separate. She was dancing not in synch with the music at
all. She was caught in the moment”, the artist recollected. Wearing was intrigued by someone behaving in a public place as they might in the privacy of home. Dancing in Peckham is a portrait of sorts of this person, for which Wearing practiced in advance by dancing to some of her favourite music, including Queen, Gloria Gaynor
and Nirvana. Yet, it might by turn also be considered a portrait of the artist herself that pre-empted the way social media is used today.
