4 Oct 2011

Grayson Perry curates at the British Museum

The cross-dressing artist Grayson Perry has curated a new exhibition at the British Museum – mixing his own work with the pick of their collection.

He calls himself the tranny potter. But the Turner prize winning artist Grayson Perry has been given free rein at that most respected of national institutions, the British Museum.

He’s been allowed to curate his own show, displaying 30 of his own works alongside some 170 pieces from the museum’s vast collection of artefacts. As a highlight, he’s created a huge rusted iron coffin in the shape of a ship, adorned with a flint axe, called The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman – which is also the title of the show.

Pick of the collection

Perry gave Channel 4 News culture editor Matthew Cain a sneak preview of the show – describing it as “a tour through my head, a look at world culture through my eyes.” He first narrowed down his pick of the Musuem’s collection to around a thousand, selecting work he was already interested in, before moving on to pieces that he found by chance, or association. “Of course I was so drawn in by fantastic things I found, that I ended up being influenced by them”.

From hand axe to Hello Kitty

Just a few pieces in the huge storeroom were off limits: anything deemed too fragile, or culturally sensitive. His themes range from shamanism and holy relics, to motorbikes and notions of modern identity – the objects on display include a hand axe from the dawn of civilisation and a Hello Kitty hand towel.

I want them to come out of it and be inspired. Grayson Perry

And it’s a show which encourages visitors not to be intimidated by the grandeur of the museum itself, but to engage with it. “I want to say, your opinion counts too”, he said. “I want them to come out of it and be inspired.”

Antiquity in the digital age

In short, Perry is aiming to bring the treasures of antiquity to a generation which is more used to the transient, flickering images on a computer screen. And he’s hoping to attract a whole new audience to the British museum as a result.

It’s a totemic, visceral experience. Grayson Perry

“I’m an object lover in a digital age”, Perry says. “The object can often just seem like a dusty content provider. But I think we still need the real thing in front of us. It’s a totemic, visceral experience. And I want people to come here and see the real things.”

The exhibition at the British Museum runs from October 6th until 9 February 2012.

Objects of desire

Hopefully, visitors to The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen will come out of the exhibition not just thinking that they've seen a sensational show - which it is. But they'll also come out thinking about which of the British Museum's eight million objects they would have selected for their own exhibition. If they do, then the exhibition really will have succeeded.

Read more: Why Grayson Perry's British Museum show is sensational