You’ve watched the TV series, seen the tapestries and now you can read the book... The catalogue published by Hayward Touring to accompany Grayson Perry’s exhibition The Vanity of Small Differences is a modest, but rather handsome affair.
It’s hard to remember exactly at what point Grayson Perry went from a slightly annoying Turner Prize-winning cross dressing potter to full-blown national treasure to rival Clare Balding, but last year’s TV series All in the Best Possible Tastewith Grayson Perry almost certainly helped with the apparently seamless transition. It’s interesting to note that as the public embracement of Perry intensifies, the not-at-all-fickle art world is turning its back – in a recent blog post, the Guardian’s art critic Jonathan Jones describes him as being nothing more than a “rabble-rousing”, “fifth-rate potter”.
Perry’s revealing three part Channel 4 series examined the tastes, values and aspirations as displayed by Britain’s lower, middle and upper classes. Shot on location in Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and the Cotswolds, Perry spent time with each of these groups of people trying to determine what each considered to be ‘good’ taste and to understand the psychology behind what each thought were essentially subconscious decisions made to reinforce this. Perry is revealed to be a surprisingly erudite and sympathetic character, moving effortlessly between the different groups, asking awkward questions and aping their wardrobes, but somehow still managing to endear himself to his various class-conscious lab rats.
Eight large-scale digitally-produced tapestries entitled The Vanity of Small Differences was subsequently created from a series of drawings made by Perry as a response to his observations during the time he spent filming. Based on the life of an imaginary character Tim Rakewell, a boy from humble beginnings who moves up the social strata before suffering an untimely death when he crashes his Ferrari, each piece references historical works from the likes of van Eyck, Gainsborough and Hogarth. The characters are both real and imagined, they include many of those featured in the TV series and a smattering of celebs, including “the god of social mobility” himself, Jamie Oliver.
The tapestries were exhibited at the Victoria Miro Gallery, The Royal Academy’s summer show and are currently touring various locations around the UK. This book is essentially a companion to the exhibition, its hardback, landscape format, fabric bound cover and glossy tip-ins elevating it book, rather than catalogue status.
So, other than the eight tapestries (which fold out, allowing us to view them in their entirety), what else fills this 100+ page volume?
There’s an introductory text by Perry, who himself enjoys a degree of upward social mobility, while speaking as the self-styled ‘voice of the people’. As you’d expect if you’ve seen the TV series, Perry is insightful and witty on paper, with an engaging turn of phrase (“Cut me and, beneath the thick crust of Islington it still says ‘Essex’ all the way through”). In addition there’s a text by Suzanne Moore, a chapter containing stills taken while Perry was filming, a fascinating glimpse of the original sketches which form the basis of the tapestries and a peek behind the scenes at the factory where the tapestries were produced. The details of the tapestries don’t do them any favours, but perhaps this is due to the technical challenges of photographing textiles.
There’s also an Arts Council produced app to accompany the exhibition — which at £1.99 is a pretty good a low-cost alternative to a traditional catalogue; however fans of Perry might find it hard to resist this rather handsome title with its relatively modest cover price. While the publication feels more like a book in its intentions, in reality it functions more as a catalogue for the exhibition and a companion piece to the TV series. It’s hard to imagine anyone buying this if they hadn’t watched the TV series – to really make it work as a standalone publication it would need to have an accompanying DVD. Three cheers for Channel Four then, which has made all three episodes available to view online at 4OD.
There’s another TV series in the pipeline, and who could forget the ‘fifth rate potter’’s entertaining musings for the prestigious Radio 4 Reith lectures on the BBC at the end of last year? The first instalment saw Perry giving a refreshingly candid account of the absurdities of the modern art market, dressed for radio in a multi-coloured shift dress and a pair of gravity-defying patent orange platforms.
Tour continues:
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (14 February – 11 May 2014)
Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (23 May – 10 August 2014)
Leeds City Art Gallery (late August – October 2014)
The Vanity of Small Differences, by Suzanne Moore and Adam Lowe
Published by Hayward Publishing, £17.99