Artist says sorry for 'insult' to Cilla Black
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing apologised last night for an "artwork" which consisted of the words: "Fuck Cilla Black."
Wearing had been invited to design the front cover of The Guardian's tabloid section yesterday. To illustrate an article on the new reality game shows, her front cover consisted merely of the three words in black felt tip pen surrounded by white space. The cover provoked more than 200 complaints.
Wearing said last night that she was a fan of both Cilla Black and her TV show, Blind Date. She said she was surprised by the number of protests about the cover and had thought most readers would interpret it as she had intended – a humorous take on the accompanying feature about how nasty TV entertainment had become.
"Even Blind Date had to become slightly nasty in its format to get the ratings, but it lost viewers. It was meant to be humorous. The cover is something you spend very little time on normally and I wanted it to be something quite simple.
"I thought people would laugh at it and not even look at it for long. It just shows you cannot predict what people will think," she said. "I am sorry if I have offended people."
Some complainants were offended by the use of bad language, while some took issue with the notion that Wearing's work might constitute art.
Wearing told the MediaGuardian website she did not know if it was a piece of art. It was one of several ideas she came up with after attending a morning's features conference at the newspaper. "Normally I have weeks or months to do a piece but this I had to do in a few hours. It's the quickest thing I have done in my life. "
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments