It's Time for a Time-Out: Part 3

Grayson Perry: 'Most Popular Exhibition Ever.'

"With power comes great responsibility"

Reclining Artist~2017

Ever since Perry was a child he was aware of the visual environment people built themselves in and he wanted to decode this. He noticed that people worship their possessions excessively and that they use them to communicate their position in society. British care too much about taste as it is enriched so much within our system of social class; archetypically one social class determines one's taste. His works enrich the viewers about his social commentary, love of decoration and his skills in craftsmanship; producing ceramics, tapestries, prints and cast metals.

Kenilworth AM1-

Hybrid between Mexican day of the Dead and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the punk motorcycle has been pimped Perry Perry style. The frilly Nordic patterns and toy colours really embrace Perry's alter ego, Claire, and reshapes the masculinity adhered to motorbikes.

'Most Popular Exhibition Ever!' is a playful provocation where the notion of popularity links to one's preference of taste, challenging the viewer how the work adheres to the conventions of a popular artist. Masculinity responds to the code of behaviour, the economic circumstances of a different group of men.  Machines and insignia reveal relationships with male pastimes that is decorated with childhood playfulness. Perry's ongoing interest in society shows that art continues to have the power to provide an open and inclusive platform for debate.

Long Pig~ 2017

The two-headed glazed ceramic piggybank invites visitors to donate money in various labelled slots like "remain", "us", "leave", "young", "old". This demonstrates how although all the money will end up in the same pot, it is ingrained in society that we like to be classified in groups as a part of belonging to an association. Perry understands peoples' need to be identified as popular in society. These labels of classification determines class and our positioning in society, where we think we belong but in essence we are all the same and part of one pot. However the labels ensure that the artwork is accessible to everyone, including all types of people, addressing every little group. The little groups reminds us how society is divided, without divisions there would be more unity and perhaps more happiness. Or as a society we learn to accept the differences within the groups and it is our diversity as a nation that provokes togetherness.

Before we put the pennies in the piggybank we like to assess ourselves as individuals.

"Who am I?"

"Where do I stand?"

Testing how we evaluate ourselves reveals that as a society we are judgemental...

"What if I'm a bit of everything?" Because after all I wouldn't want to be put under one label.

As a nation we are fixated on labels. By labelling society we are only objectifying ourselves, we are also creating a façade that is a side we want everyone else to see and it doesn't reveal true self. Labels enforce stereotyping and they don't make it easy for people to be liberal and expressive.

1) Battle of Britain Tapestry~ 2017

2) The Digmoor Tapestry~ 2016

Tapestries are typically grand and are hung in vast saloons and bedchambers of ancestral piles, depicting classical myths or military victories. Perry's tapestries seem to be the modern adaptation of those that were traditionally status symbols of the rich and Perry distorts this by illustrating a commonplace drama of social mobility. The Digmoor Tapestry being a portrayal of young men burdened by poverty, having disrupted educations where stress and anxiety drove them to abuse. Inspired by African fabrics, the addition of graffiti taken straight from the boys' environment displays the hormonal need to assert masculinity to defend their territory as there was a deprivation of money, education, power, jobs and family.