What has Grayson Perry done for me?

Being a Grandma means that every time I lean forward while typing on the laptop, there is the noise of some farm animal (no, not ME, silly!) because the kiddies' book I'm resting on is a clever one. Eric pointed out tonight at story time that I have a very wrinkly neck and hands, and look VERY old. Funny, I don't seem to mind at all. Reading yesterday's blog, I could see just how old I am - thinking that the new generation is not going to learn to make stuff etc etc, yawn yawn, 'In MY day...'! - well maybe they aren't going to do the same things that we did, but no doubt they will do good things.

Opening day at Knitting & Stitching Show

This morning I went to Ally Pally just to get the catalogue for the Knitting & Stitching Show that I'm going to tomorrow, and there were these hordes of women arriving, showing that making is alive and well, and I'm sure it won't all be cross-stitch kits. I know; I'm a craft snob; such kits are fine, but I wouldn't see the point for myself; I want what I make to me mine, all mine.

You can see what a tribe these women are, and I'm obviously identifiable too, since two of them approached me some miles off Ally Pally asking 'Where is the shuttle bus?', just expecting me to know that they meant the bus supposedly laid on from the station to the Palace itself. I sympathised. I'm so lucky to have family just round the corner from the one event I'd hate to miss the most. That bunting is all made of knitted triangles by the way. I'll find out more tomorrow!

Today was Grayson Perry Day for me at the British Museum, the first day of his new exhibition 'The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman', which he said could be another name for the British Museum. I wrote down many things he is quoted as saying, as well as some the things he has written on his pots. I love the one called 'The Frivolous Now', on which he lists many things that are very much the thing of today, as all the stuff in the BM was at one time. Thus he listed, among many other things, phrases like 'Going forward', 'The Big Society', Botox, Corporate spirituality, Mumsnet, and much more. All without comment, except that he refers to them 'Banalities and buzzwords'.

It's bigger than it looks here

I like the words at the entrance: 'Do not look too hard for meaning here. I am not a historian, I am an artist. That is all you need to know.' Of course, he understands a lot about the objects he has chosen from the BM, which stand alongside things he has made himself. Often, from a short distance away, it is hard to tell which objects are GP's creations, and which are antiquities; that's the point, well one of them.

I like it that he says, 'Part of my role as an artist is similar to that of a shaman or witchdoctor. I dress up, I tell stories, I give things meaning and make them a bit more significant. Like religion, this is not a rational process, I use my intuition. Sometimes our very human desire for meaning can get in the way of having a good experience of the world. Some people call this irrational unconscious experience spirituality. I don't.' Oh good. I'm not myself a big fan of that word either.

GP is a big fan of Joseph Beuys, about whom I must find out more, and here is some stuff to be going on with:
http://www.quotes-famous-artists.org/joseph-beuys-famous-quotes

What really impresses me is GP's humorous turning of his teddy Alan Measles into a kind of god. I love the embroidery where Alan is shown with his arms spread over the adherents of other religions, giving them wise advice 'Hold your beliefs lightly'. GP is an atheist, but he doesn't hate religion in the way that some atheists do, and instead of mounting an agressive anti-religion campaign, he makes a gentle plea for, well, for gentleness among the religious, I suppose. He has a lot more sense on this than some intellectuals who ought to know better.

The idea of pilgrimage is one that appeals to GP, and there are objects arranged in categories such as maps, shrines, souvenirs of pilgrimage, magick etc. I'd say that like me, he is religious but not spiritual, though of course I stray into belief into the more usual god.

Have a look at this sneery review by Brian Sewell: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/review-23995089-grayson-perry-british-museum---review.do
and if you like GP, go to this exhibition and enjoy; see http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/news_and_press/press_releases/2011/grayson_perry.aspx and http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/crafts-magazine/latest-issue/upfront/1 Maybe I'm a simple soul, but I just loved it, and I don't want anybody to be nasty about him.

I'm still in London, of course, and I suppose this sort of thing is normal. It really does just sell fruit and veg and stuff, so maybe it just lacks a grocers' apostrophe, and there is someone called Ero.