A family member, Neela, has sent me some information through social media on a forthcoming exhibition of Grayson Perry’s work at Rochdale Art Gallery. It's really interesting how Perry modernises ideas from Renaissance and Christian art. I remember my son studying Vanitas when he was at High School and how he explained the use of the hidden skulls in Vanitas paintings. Death lies in wait, the old master’s tell us, even for the grandest and most successful. Grayson Perry has placed a skull within this series of tapestries to suggest the inescapability of death and its role as the ultimate social leveller. The main theme of these tapestries is class and the kinds of cultural signifiers that signal class differences are used to satirise social and cultural aspirations - the small vanities which signal real or perceived status in much the same way his Renaissance predecessors did. This is most witty, yet Perry also draws on religious imagery within these tapestries to add additional meaning, using poses and structures from classic religious works. In doing so, I wonder if he means to show how culture crucifies and - most certainly - limits us?
The vanity of small differences
I visited one of Perry’s exhibitions a few years ago at the Turner in Margate, which my dad and his late wife took me to see. The woman in the middle of this painting reminds me very much of the Virgin Mary. Is she representative of the witness standing at the foot of cross? Does she represent the apprehensions of mothers everywhere? Or is she merely puzzled by what goes on around her? I think she is a secular Mary. Yet the connection to the idea of universal suffering as embodied through a Catholic icon cannot be discounted.
The idea of witnessing is an interesting one, particularly
if one takes it beyond the narrow Evangelical Christian definition, which
basically means telling others about Jesus Christ. Something I have always been
deeply uncomfortable with. The idea of witnessing life, in a meaningful or spiritual
context can be a deeply religious experience, one that can make sense within a humanistic
Christian context, and beyond. The ability of artists in all kinds of different
fields to explore and present the ‘truths of life’ as they see them, or want
us to see them is an incredible gift. Think of how the seven deadly sins and the
seven virtues have provided endless source material for artists and writers. Pride,
envy, gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, and wrath; faith, hope, charity, fortitude,
justice, prudence and temperance. They interweave
through life on many human levels: individual,
family, community, society. Of course,
there are not just seven faults and seven good qualities, there are many and for
most of us they intermingle and most of us will, often unexpectedly, be shaken by
the hidden reach of our shadow side. It’s
so very easy to point the finger when the clay feet of those in the public eye
give way. Hypocrisy is never far from
the surface, not just within the fallen but also resides within those who poke the finger and/or
take joy at others downfall. And even those who don't.
Well, that’s all a bit serious for a sunny afternoon.
