Continuing to take Lindsay’s ‘Do NOT treat your last two months as a wind-down – treat it as more of your holiday’ advice, my cousin and I went to see the Grayson Perry: Smash Hits exhibit.
Sir Grayson Perry is a very unusual Englishman. He is a TV presenter, a transvestite, and an artist who works primarily in ceramics and tapestries. I have often seen him interviewed on UK TV and I had seen a photographic portrait of him, his wife, and their daughter in the National Portrait Gallery, but I had never seen any of his work. Wow. This man is NOT a minimalist. His work is amazing. The tour of the exhibit (which was huge) comes as quite the onslaught to the senses. There is an audio tour as an accompaniment, and it is Grayson narrating – this made the exhibit 100 times better than it already was (and it already was great).
His work is often autobiographical, usually social commentary on England of the last 50 years, and sometimes both at the same time. It was fascinating, and mesmerizing, and off-putting, and compelling – but I will admit that after 90 minutes I needed to step away – it was definitely sensory overload. When you think that my favourite artist is Mark Rothko, you can see why I found the pieces below overwhelming (and there were over 80 works on display).
So glad I went.
