WHO ARE YOU? GRAYSON PERRY AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

This weekend I visited the new Grayson Perry exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. I'd really enjoyed the three Channel 4 TV programmes that explore the complex issue of identity in Britain today. Fourteen portraits of individuals, families and groups, including politician Chris Huhne, a young female-to-male transsexual, Northern Ireland Loyalist marchers and X-Factor contestant Rylan Clark, have been inserted into the Gallery’s nineteenth and twentieth century rooms on Floor 1.
           As a transvestite artist he comes to this subject in a non-judgemental way, his subjects warm to him and are on the whole surprised and delighted by the end result; a portrait in tapestry, a hijab, ceramic fertility goddesses, a relic chest, a rock band poster, a pot inscribed and decorated with meaningful imagery of his subjects. There is a self portrait as an internal map or landscape, a bit like the medieval Mappa Mundi, where Jerusalem was the centre of our universe, his centre are his values, beliefs and concerns. What is particularly interesting in this exhibition is the way in which his art works are juxtaposed with other portraits and artefacts.
           What I particularly like about Grayson is his down-to earth questioning approach, his wry humour, and his craftsmanship. And of course his flamboyant alter ego Claire, who wears some great frocks.  He can draw too! (Take note Tracy Emin)
          I am currently reading his book, based on the 2013 BBC Reith lectures he presented earlier this year, entitled, 'Playing to the Gallery: helping contemporary art  in its struggle to be understood,' and it is a really good read.  He is guest editor for the October 10-16 2014 issue of The New Statesman, a special issue on the Great White Male.'(That's the straight, white, middle-class men who dominate our culture(and politics)' 
         One question he asks us his audience, is to think of one word that gives us an immediate clue to how we define our own identity. I found this quite difficult; would it be woman, feminist,working class, rebel, socialist, binge eater, cynic, mother, wife, counsellor, writer? Although I might be all these things in parts, which is my immediate response? I think it would probably be human being. What would yours be?


Grayson Perry: Who Are You? is a series of three sixty-minute films broadcast this autumn on Channel  4. The Exhibition is on at the National Portrait Gallery until 15 March 2015. Admission free.