I went to see Grayson Perry’s series of tapestries named ‘The Vanity of Small Differences’ at Temple Newsum the other day. I saw them briefly before at the Summer Exhibition at the RA a couple of years ago but didn’t really understand the meaning of them. I didn’t realise that they were created alongside a documentary series in which Perry visited three very different regions of England exploring the taste of the different social groups he encountered. The tapestries look at English Class through the story of the life of Tim Rakewell – a modern day version of William Hogarths ‘A Rake’s Progress’- and his progress through modern British society from humble birth to infamous death.
The tapestries identified with many of the ideas that I had been having about my COP2 practical work. Firstly he represents certain people and objects in a way that religious figures and perhaps the monarchy would have been represented in traditional tapestries such as the football shirt and the miners lamp n ‘The Adoration of the Cage Fighters’ and the night club singer in ‘The Agony in the Car Park’.
Each tapestry also mirrors a historical religious artwork but brings it into the 21st Century:
‘The Adoration of the Cage Fighters’ mirrors Andrea Mantegna’s ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’
‘The Agony in the Car Park’ mirrors Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Agony in the Garden’
‘Expulsion from Number 8 Eden Close’ mirrors Masaccio’s ‘The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden’
‘The annunciation of the Virgin Deal’ mirrors four different paintings :
The Annunciation by Carlo Crivelli
‘The Annunciation’ by Matthias Grunewald
‘The Annunciation’ by Robert Campin
‘The Upper Class at Bay or An Endangered Species Brought Down’ mirrors Thomas Gainsborough’s ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ Portrait
Finally ‘hashtagLamentation’ mirrors Rogier Van Der Weyden’s ‘Lamentation’
I thought the garish colours used in the tapestries and the busy nature of the images does at some points make you feel a bit confused by what the tapestries actually mean. Perhaps this was a way in which to represent the overwhelming nature of modern life and the amount of choice we are now seemingly given in the way in which we live our lives. Perhaps all this choice just means that we are all just feel a bit confused as to whether we are actually doing anything right.
It was interesting to see how Perry managed to include this idea of ‘religion’ and ‘worship’ into his work. I might take some inspiration from his work and incorporate it into this project.
After seeing the Tapestries I then watched the documentaries that went with them. It was really interesting to see how much each class’ idea of taste differed – what people thought was sophisticated and what aspects of your life you were supposed to reveal to other people.
Before seeing these tapestries and watching the documentary I had never thought about incorporating class into this project but I have now realised that each class comes with its own set of worships, icons and objects that have replaced religion of Christian faith and the Monarchy.
ISABEL DRAKE 