Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences: The Vanity of Small Differences (reprinted)

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Perry is certainly aware of his own position in relation to his work and openly admits that some aspects of the scenes in the pieces are autobiographical – such as the abandoned little boy hiding behind the banister in the left-hand corner of the first tapestry. Beyond the personal, Perry also manages to tap into our contemporary social consciousness, as is evident in the second tapestry where writing in the waves spell out socio-political clichés about the working class. The Vanity of Small Differencesis A beautiful publication, covered with real cloth,accompanying the Hayward Touring exhibition with the same name. The bookfeatures Perry’s six vibrant and highly detailed tapestries bearing the influence bothof early Renaissance painting and of William Hogarth’s moralising series, literallyweaving characters, incidents and objects from the artist’s research into a modern dayversion of Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress(1733). Inspired by Hogarth’s morality tale, A Rake’s Progress, Perry’s tapestries (on display in Salisbury from 29 June 2022) follow the socially-mobile life of fictional character Tim Rakewell from infancy to untimely death. The Dean views Perry as “a magpie-like figure — taking ideas and imagery from a range of sources — making use of archetypes without simply singling out medieval sacred art”. Nevertheless, the fact that works of sacred art inspired these tapestries, and that tapestry itself is an art-form that the cathedral’s early custodians would have been familiar with, and was used to bring religious stories to life and depict historical events, means that, when the tapestries are shown in this space, these connections and references are activated and animated in ways that wouldn’t otherwise occur. As a result, showing Perry’s tapestries here proves to be an inspired move.

Six large tapestries exploring the British fascination with taste and class by one of the UK’s best-known and best-loved artists – Grayson Perry. Made in parallel with a Channel 4 documentary series, All in the Best Possible Taste, they are crammed with acutely-observed detail and invite us all to consider our own attitudes to class and our positions in society. I make the work I like. But a nice spinoff benefit of that is that I bring a kind of audience that isn’t necessarily solely into difficult, conceptualized 21st-century art." I have worked with Tim for a decade, a genius, yet so down to earth. Tim’s incredibly driven, he never feels successful. He’s calmer since his mother died. He’s had a lot of therapy. He wants to be good.’ They will make some people’s eyes pop and brighten but I’m sure they will jar for others. I really hope people question themselves over their reactions – and if they are interacting then the artwork is doing its job.”

Selected Images

The touring exhibition (19 September 2021–30 January 2022) developed by the Holburne Museum in Bath, is the first to celebrate Grayson Perry’s earliest forays into the art world and re-introduces the works he made between 1982 and 1994. Much of the inspiration for the pieces came from Grayson Perry’s ‘safari amongst the taste tribes of Britain’, referring to Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and The Cotswolds. He travelled this journey for his TV show ‘All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry’, which was first aired on Chanel 4 in May/June in 2012. The collection involves the construction of characters from those that he met, incidents and objects that resembles his journey. Grayson Perry comments: "The tapestries tell the story of class mobility, for I think nothing has as strong an influence on our aesthetic taste as the social class in which we grow up. I am interested in the politics of consumerism and the history of popular design but for this project I focus on the emotional investment we make in the things we choose to live with, wear, eat, read or drive. Class and taste run deep in our character - we care. This emotional charge is what draws me to a subject". Perfectly turned out in a pink and green satin dress, with matching hair ribbons and boldly rouged cheeks, Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry climbs the stairs in the airy atrium of Manchester Art Gallery to deliver a short speech celebrating the gallery The tapestries weave autobiographical references with characters, places and objects that Perry encountered on his travels through regions of England for the Channel 4, BAFTA-winning documentary series ‘All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry’ (2012). Taking inspiration from many art-historical references, in particular Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, this exhibition tells the story of the rise and demise of Tim Rakewell, aiming to act as a record of a precise moment in history.

On view until 20 March 2022, the exhibition features works from the collection along with new works by the artist. The exhibition at the Victoria Museum, run by Bath & North East Somerset Council, is now over. However further exhibitions of the tapestries are planned in Coventry, Worcester and Canterbury this year. I highly recommend seeking them out. Corbett: I know my place. I look up to them both. But I don’t look up to him as much as I look up to him (Cleese), because he has got innate breeding.

Forthcoming Events

The Vanity of Small Differences is a Hayward Touring exhibition. The Vanity of Small Differences was gifted to the British Council Collection and the Arts Council Collection by the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery with the support of Channel 4 Television and the Art Fund, and additional support from AlixPartners. Grayson Perry. The Upper Class at Bay, 2012 (detail). Wool, cotton, acrylic, polyester and silk tapestry, 200 x 400 cm (78 3/4 x 157 1/2 in), edition of 6 plus 2 artist's proofs. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London.

Published by Particular Books, the accompanying book for Perry's show at the Serpentine Gallery (8 June – 10 September 2017) contains all his latest works. Sketch books are the most talismanic objects in my artistic life. I carry them around with me most of the time.'The exhibition (16 June–7 October 2018) engages with themes of communication, breakdown of communication, and isolation. Over the last decade the tapestries have been displayed in galleries, museums and stately homes. Perry was not at the cathedral for the hanging but said: “It was conceived as a public artwork and I wanted to see the tapestries shared with very wide and varied audiences. My hope remains that it not only delights the eye and engages visitors, but sparks debate about class, taste and British society.” A big part of middle-class-ness is defining oneself as different, seeing one’s taste as ‘normal’ and other people’s as ‘not right’”. (Exhibition Catalogue, p. 12)