Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!
Grayson Perry is one of Britain’s most celebrated artists. The Turner Prize winner is known for his sculpture, ceramics, tapestries and quilt-work, as well as his feminine alter-ego Claire.
His practice has long been concerned with what you might call the fabric of society. His current preoccupation with the way we consume art and the ways in which contemporary art can best address a diverse cross section of society is at the heart of his mantra.
And there is no escaping it in his newest body of work, opening at the Serpentine Galleries on election day.
With a desire to challenge “the same old comfortable ideas” which, in Perry's view, dominates British society and culture, we pick the works which are now more pertinent than ever.
There's no escaping Perry's social commentary in this exhibition, and never more so than with the thunderous tapestry dominating the Serpentine's main gallery.
Battle of Britain is a hodge-podge of satiric jibes. We suppose the rainbow dominating the frame is meant to have us dreaming of pots and pots of money (thanks Capitalism!), the lingering clouds of pollution represent our selfish live-in-the-now mentality (screw the environment for future generations), and the row of done-in terraced houses, symbolic of Britain's social inequalities.
On top of all this, Perry adds a yob in the foreground, Occado vans on the motorway, and graffiti spelling out Class War, Leave and Toffs Out, to make his point even clearer. As if we didn't get it.
While beautifully crafted, Battle of Britain, is a simplistic shout out to all the most obvious factors polarising Britain. If only it was that simple.