Grayson Perry and the Vanity of Small Differences

This set of 6 tapestries were on display at Manchester Art Gallery.  They were absolutely wonderful when seen for real, much better than when seen on the documentary on the tv.  The first two tapestries portray social class from the perspective of the working class, the next two represent the middle class, and the final two represent the upper class.  His key character throughout is Tim Rathbone, playing on a similar character to Hogarth's Tom Rathbone in A Rake's Progress.

I focussed on a couple of small details in each tapestry.  Each one has a version of his personal logo, which is an anchor surmounted by a W.  In the first tapestry, The Adoration of the Cage Fighters, the logo is on the Davey Lamp held by the miners in front of Tim as a baby.  The logo is a simple line drawing. On the second tapestry, The Agony of the Car Park, it is on the meat safe, which is a prize in a raffle held at a working man's club.  Again it is simply portrayed as Tim is still a child and remains working class.  By the third tapestry, Expulsion from No 8 Eden Close, when Tim is chucked out from home for going to university, the logo is on a bottle of olive oil and is more fancy and considered in style.  On the 4th tapestry, Annunciation of the Virgin Deal, the W-Anchor logo is surmounted by a simple crown, and has the tiny initials RA, indicative of his Royal Academy status.  It is portrayed on a chinese pot, which also has a sketch of his teddy bear Alan Measles on it.  The 5th tapestry, for the Upper Class at Bay, the W- Anchor logo is surmounted by a fancy crown, a large RA and is on the portico over the entrance to the stately home.  In the final piece, Lamentation, when Tim dies in a car crash, the W-Anchor logo has lost its crown, and is being spray painted by vandals in the background, and the comment "RA is .." is being written as graffiti.  

Throughout the work, there are references to classical paintings, alongside references to his life experiences.  For example in the second one, the characters look like his hated stepfather, his mother's adoration of a rogue, and Tim wearing Grayson Perry's old school uniform.  In the third tapestry, the home of his parents looks like Beaulieu Park in Chelmsford (affluent yet tacky new property in my opinion) and the gas guzzling motor car has a number plate CO2, which could be an environmental reference, but is also a Colchester postcode.

I could have spent a whole weekend looking at it.  Absolutely brilliant.  It works on a number of levels: classical, social, personal narrative.  He is a very clever man, and I think his narrative tapestries are his best work.

I also had a trip to Manchester Cathedral to look at the beautiful modern stained glass windows.  As cathedrals go, it is comparatively small, but full of wonderfully carved gothic woodwork, and brilliant windows.