The exhibition was consisted of a set of
the most admired artworks by Grayson Perry. This set of works of art was a
series of sequential sgraffito drawings fulfilled on carpets with a
chronicle fictional story about contemporary life.
I will cite some comments from Victoria
Miro’s website to help me with understanding of his artworks:
Grayson Perry uses the seductive qualities
of ceramics and other art forms to make stealthy comments about societal
injustices and hypocrisies, and to explore a variety of historical and
contemporary themes. The beauty of his work is what draws us close. Covered
with sgraffito drawings, handwritten and stencilled texts, photographic
transfers and rich glazes, Perry's detailed pots are deeply alluring. Only when
we are up close do we start to absorb narratives that might allude to dark
subjects such as environmental disaster or child abuse, and even then the
narrative flow can be hard to discern.
The disparity between form and content and the relationship between the pots and the images that decorate them is perhaps the most challenging incongruity of Perry's work. Yet, beyond the initial shock of an apparently benign or conservative medium carrying challenging ideas, what keeps us drawn to the work is its variety.
Perry is a great chronicler of contemporary life, drawing us in with wit, affecting sentiment and nostalgia as well as fear and anger. Autobiographical references - to the artist's childhood, his family and his transvestite alter ego Claire - can be read in tandem with debates about décor and decorum and the status of the artist versus that of the artisan, debates which Perry turns on their head.
The disparity between form and content and the relationship between the pots and the images that decorate them is perhaps the most challenging incongruity of Perry's work. Yet, beyond the initial shock of an apparently benign or conservative medium carrying challenging ideas, what keeps us drawn to the work is its variety.
Perry is a great chronicler of contemporary life, drawing us in with wit, affecting sentiment and nostalgia as well as fear and anger. Autobiographical references - to the artist's childhood, his family and his transvestite alter ego Claire - can be read in tandem with debates about décor and decorum and the status of the artist versus that of the artisan, debates which Perry turns on their head.
As mentioned above
Perry’s pots are very detailed and that lends deep readability and openness of
interpretations to his storytelling. This set I saw in the exhibition was about
a man’s whole life that spanned several societal classes faced with hope,
miseries, accidental chances and some realistic societal problems. Some details
in his stories can be traced back to motives in Bible and compositions to some
classical paintings and traditions.
Some detailes
deserved to be paid attention to in this piece of artwork.
Our protagonist
was called Tim. He belong to a “normal family” filled with problems of divorce,
mental illness, dv, addiction. The lady in this work was Tim’s mother who was
longing for a night out of the weekend in town as a precious ritual. Tim’s
rival for mother’s attention can be a interesting point. His mother’s Tshirt
can be an icon of a minor’s lamp, of a sort of identity. We can refer to A Rake’s Progress by Horgarth (1733).
The Car Park in Agony
Tim’s Stepfather
was singing in a naiively drawn shipyard. Tim’s mother craned in the throes of
passion. Tim was blocking his ears appearing to be embarrassed. This was a
image about a class that was not accepted by middle class.
This piece can be
referred to The Agony in the Garden by
Giovanni Beillini (1465).
The religional metaphors and references
lend the work an atmosphere of modern conflictions.
New
Recruit into Middle Class
Some description and analysis:
Shipbuilding bound the town together like a
religion.
The yard closed down ripped the heart out
of the community. Rainbow is the divisional line between the yard a the Garden
of Eden. Tim and his girlfriend can be compared with Adam and Eva.
The
Anunciation of the Virgin Deal
References:
The Anunciation and The Vegetables by Carlo Grivelli
The Jug of LIllies by Robert Campin
His Colleague’s Expression by Matthias
Grunewald
Tim was now a millionaire because he sold
the program he cooperated developing with his friend. Still life showed the
cultural bounty of his affluent life style – a geek’s progression. Mother’s
photo showed she had passed away. Was Tim feeling happy and successful now?
A great pictorial display of wealth and
status
The
Upper Class at Bay
Class war between the socalled new money
and the old aristocrats?
Reference:
Mr and Mrs Andrews by Gainsborough’s (1750)
Stag hunted down by dogs of tax, social
change, upkeep and fuel bills. The old land-owning breed was dying out.
Lamentation
Compared
to Roeger van der Weyden’s Lamentation
Tim died of car crush.
Some details worthy of paying attention to:
Glamorous life. Ferrari. Tim’s young second
wife. Hello magazine.
Grayson Perry’s approach of reflecting his
own life and social mobility led me to unavoidable learning and meanwhile to
critical thinking over these ways of quotations from cultural history and
interpretations of real life. His record about life might be very self-related
and subjective. But to what extend should artworks be objective and refer to
public topic in terms of its function. From a sociological perspective these
pieces of artworks can be too objective and fragmental to be scientific and
loyal recording of societal phenomenon. In other word, they can be expressions
of prejudices while they are intending to issue questions against inequality
and social problems in terms of public fields.
Some references:
http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/12-grayson-perry/
