Grayson Perry was amiably biting the hands that feed him at yesterday’s (8 June) VIP preview lunch for his teasingly-titled Serpentine show, The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!
Resplendent in a diaphanous blue frock, gold peep-toe platforms and clutching a canary yellow handbag donated by the show sponsors Mulberry—which he said made him feel “like a gnarled 57 year old Alexa Chung”—the world’s most famous transvestite potter whipped the well-heeled crowd of Serp patrons on a whirlwind personal tour of the galleries. Pausing in the West Gallery or—as he dubbed it, “the Man’s Room”—Perry indulged in a bout of good natured banker-baiting. He described the finance sector as the most visually arid and emotionally repressed community he had surveyed during his recent All Man televsion series for Channel 4 and summed up his giant phallic ceramic Object in Foreground (2016), which also resembles the City’s Gherkin building, as “just another bland sculpture for all those the bland city lobbies”.
There was more nervous laughter—especially from the plethora of pinstriped male attendees—when Perry compared how the disenfranchised youth on the Digmoor council estate in Lancashire mark their territory by “covering it with graffitied cocks, whereas the city bankers mark theirs with cock shaped buildings”.
But there was always the solace of some retail therapy. Despite Perry’s limited edition Family Shrine having sold out in minutes, the crowd was mollified by being able to purchase reassuringly shiny Liberal Elite fridge magnets and Kate Middleton-inspired Kate Board skateboards in the gift shop. There was soon a long queue for the artist to sign the latter, which will not be seeing any skate parks, methinks.
Despite canvassing the British public on their views on Brexit for his almost indistinguishable Remain and Leave pots, titled Matching Pair (2017), the artist did not divulge any views on tonight’s general election result, preferring to comment that there is more that unites than divides us. Nonetheless, he couldn't resist revealing that “Remainers take a much better photograph”.
