Turner-Prize winning artist Grayson Perry’s latest exhibition features a series of six tapestries that blend dramas of modern British life with hints of the Renaissance and focus on Perry’s fascination with taste, class mobility...
Who? Turner-Prize winning artist Grayson Perry’s latest exhibition at Victoria Miro Gallery: The Vanity of Small Differences.
What? A series of six tapestries that blend dramas of modern British life with hints of the Renaissance and focus on Perry’s fascination with taste, class mobility and “the emotional investment we make in the things we choose to live with, wear, eat, read or drive”.
Created alongside the television series In the Best Possible Taste – in which Perry travels to Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and the Cotswolds investigating the working, middle and upper classes – these vibrant tapestries interweave real life characters and objects Perry encountered with a narrative inspired by Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress.
Replacing Hogarth’s 18th century philanderer with the 21st century software developer Tim Rakewell, Perry tells the tale of a working class man in Sunderland’s ascent up the social and economic ladder. Constructed with Perry’s signature playfulness, wit and incredible attention to detail – note the Penguin books mugs, “Allotment Organic Home-Made Local” jam label, and Cath Kidston floral bag in the bourgeois interior setting of The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal (a detail of which is above) – the artist makes us question how our own social upbringing has influenced our aesthetic taste and how strongly our surroundings can define us.
Why? Featured in the last issue of AnOther Magazine and recently exhibiting at The British Museum, Perry’s manipulation of traditional media and commentary on modern day culture continues to intrigue and inspire, making him one of the most prominent figures in the contemporary art world.
Having showcased The Walthamstow Tapestry at the Victoria Miro Gallery in 2009 to great critical acclaim (which explored the emotional resonance of brand names in our lives and our quasi-religious relationship to consumerism), this latest offering sees Perry return to the gallery with a deeper exploration of present-day issues and the medium in which he excels.
Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Difference runs until August 11 at Victoria Miro Gallery
Text by Lucia Davies