Grayson Perry is an English potter who often appears in public as “Claire”, his female alter-ego. He was born in 1960 in Chelmsford (Essex County). Grayson’s parents divorced when he was seven years old, his mother quickly remarried but her second husband was abusive to the family. The absence of Grayson’s paternal father and violence of Grayson’s stepfather play a huge role in the subject matter of his artistic work.
Grayson Perry’s pottery forms reference Classical Greek and folk art traditions. The pots are often coil-built using an earthenware clay body and layered with complex decorative techniques. For Perry, the surface of the pot is not just for decoration, it’s the place where meaning lies.
“One of the interesting results of putting potentially offensive imagery on a vase is that the shock factor is neutralized by the homely humility we associate with pots… This homeliness also neutralizes any pornographic potential in the subject matter.” Grayson Perry
“His exemplary work uses classical pottery forms (plates, vases) that could be characterized as female, and it is the pictoral surfaces associated with the male gaze that are original and unconventional. This dichotomy creates the tension that makes the work operational.”
Paul Mathieu, Sex Pots
Grayson Perry won the Turner prize in 2003. It is an annual award given to one British visual artist under the age of 50. Upon winning, Perry said, “Well it’s about time a transvestite potter won the Turner Prize. I think the art world had more trouble coming to terms with me being a potter than my choice of frocks.”
“For many cross-dressers their fantasy of outward femininity only becomes a reality when they pass unnoticed. The sole attention a transvestite usually wants is the same attention a woman would get. Some trannies search out the recognition a grown woman attracts, whereas I search out the attention a girl would receive.”
Grayson Perry, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl
Here is a video from his most recent show at the Tate Modern. It was a retrospective of his work to date.
Here is a link to Grayson Perry’s show at the National Portrait Gallery from earlier this spring. Perry did extensive interviews with people who’s personal identity was transitioning in one way or another (gender, religion, mental health). He then crafted a portrait of those individuals to put into the NPG that otherwise is full of portraits of old white men. Here’s a nice quote from Perry about his reasoning for profiling this sort of person:
“For most of us, most of the time our identity works for us so we do not question it. But when it does not feel right, or is under threat, then we are suddenly made very aware of how central and vital our identity is.”
http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/graysonperry/explore/film.php
It’s interesting to think about how Grayson Perry is perceived in the art world and whether his cross-dressing is considered part of his gender identity or dismissed as performance. Are there some ways in which Perry straddles both genders? His work often highlights that tension but does it speak to a common experience or is it just one man who likes to wear frocks? How have his recent public collaborations contributed to the conversation about gender identity?
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