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.
Celebrated for his ceramics and tapestries, Perry's intricately detailed woodblock prints come as a welcome surprise. There are two of note. One hangs in the entrance gallery and depicts a reclining naked Perry surrounded by things that make up the fabric of his life. Make of that what you will. And the other is Animal Sprit.
This rather disturbing woodcut is of a bear, whose writhing insides are visible and labelled serious, sensible, rational etc as though it was part of an educational disection manuel. The problem is, I haven't go the faintest clue of what it means.
While it resembles the graphic plates in Diderot's 18h-century Encyclopaedia - the epitome of enlightenment thinking - Perry's woodcut remains a mystery.
The erect penis, trio of black crows, fluffy white clouds and the bear's crazed dilated pupils make no sense to me whatsoever. Maybe that's the point though? Art doesn't always have to be understood.