AN EXHIBITION displaying six giant tapestries has been displayed and is open to the public.
The Vanity of Small Differences, an exhibition of six huge tapestries by the celebrated contemporary artist Grayson Perry, has opened to the public in Salisbury Cathedral.
Each of the 2mx4m tapestries, inspired by William Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress, charts a stage in the ‘class journey’ made by young Tim Rakewell (a wry reference to Tom Rakewell, Hogarth’s protagonist) and includes many of the characters, incidents and objects Grayson Perry encountered on journeys through Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and The Cotswolds when filming a series for Channel 4.
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Cleverly and unflinchingly, Perry exposes layers of unconscious tastes or biases in the scenes and individuals he portrays. References to classical art and religious painting also inform the work, bringing, in some cases, a reverence to an otherwise mundane scene or adding an extra layer of meaning.
Perry said:“I’m interested in the things that hover in our unconsciousness. Ideas, or even prejudices, about class, gender and identity grown out of habit, life experience and upbringing. The things that bind us and separate us, whether we like or hate them. The historical canon is a powerful influence too: the stuff you absorb while wandering around museums and looking at great art. It provides a rich visual vocabulary, which has its own voice and brings with it powerful ideas and contradictions.
"Then there is the location. The Cathedral brings its own history to bear on these stories too, which won’t be apparent until the work is in place, but which will certainly influence the viewer.”
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