A stranger comes up to you in the street and asks you your innermost thoughts.
What do you tell them?
What do you write down?
It may surprise you how open you are, or what thoughts come to mind first.
This is exactly what artist Gillian Wearing did when she took to the streets of London in 1992.
Gillian Wearing’s work focuses on what people carry beneath the surface, and how what we show on the outside does not always match what we feel on the inside.
In her photographic series Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992–93), Wearing approached strangers on the streets of London and invited them to write whatever they wished on a blank sheet of paper.
No rules.
She then photographed them holding their handwritten messages up to the camera.
Wearing’s work reminds us that everyone has an inner life, even the strangers we pass without noticing.
The messages on the signs are an intriguing and surprising look into other strangers’ minds.
They are an invitation to think, reflect and glance into a window of someone else’s thinking about the world.
Of the hundreds of strangers captured, each person shares a glimpse of a moment in society, in a new way to the last.
And whilst several thoughts within the series have dated, referring to a moment in history, most remain prominent today.
Reflecting, over three decades later, on the ever-present feelings uniting human beings.
Some signs are advisory: “Save what you can for yourself, save the earth for your children”; whilst others are political: “Will Britain get through this recession?”, “The political situation in England is stable”; and some hold a tone of sadness: “I’m desperate”, “All I ever wanted was love”.
This work is on display in the Sainsbury Centre’s exhibition, Joy Like Time.
The show, which is part of the Centre’s What is the Meaning of Life? season, explores how memory, ritual and renewal weave through the work of internationally renowned artists Marina Abramović, Kalliopi Lemos and Gillian Wearing.
Tracking the careers of this select group of artists in depth, this exhibition looks at how they have found life’s meaning through their practice via craft and repetition.
The exhibition asks if duration marks everything from commutes to lifespans, from harvests to histories, might it also help us confront one of humanity’s most enduring questions: what is the meaning of life?
Responding to the exhibition season’s question, Gillian Wearing says: “What’s the meaning of life?’ reminds me of the question ‘What’s the meaning of art?’ They’re both flexible - open to interpretation and defined by whatever meaning you choose to give them (or not give at all).
“To me what makes life meaningful apart from connection to other people, is the mystery of it all, and the fact that I want to keep navigating the unknowingness of life with curiosity and creativity.”
So, I ask again - a stranger comes up to you in the street and asks you your innermost thoughts, what do you tell them?
What does your sign say?
Joy Like Time is on display as part of the Sainsbury Centre's What is the Meaning of Life? exhibition season, until November 15, 2026.
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