We Are Here

One of Britain's most celebrated photographers and film-makers, Gillian Wearing won the Turner Prize in 1997 before being appointed to the Royal Academy in 2007. In 2011 she was honoured with an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. We Are Here is an intensely personal film exploring the West Midlands, where Wearing grew up. The film sees Wearing returning to her childhood home of Sandwell, and features monologues spoken by individuals from the West Midlands. It was inspired by Spoon River Anthology by the American poet Edgar Lee Masters, in which residents rise from their grave to reminisce on their lives, losses, regrets and memories in the fictional town of Spoon River.

This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.