3.2 Grayson Perry Research

Grayson Perry is an English artist who is known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. He was born in Chelmsford on 24th March 1960. In his childhood Perry took an interest in drawing and building model aeroplanes, both of which were to become themes in his work. He had an interest in film and exhibited his first piece of pottery at the "New Contemporaries" show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1980. As well as ceramics, Perry has worked in printmaking, drawing, embroidery and other textile work, film and performance. He has written a graphic novel, Cycle of Violence.

Perry's work refers to several ceramic traditions, including Greek Pottery and Folk art. His pots are made of coiled vessels and a glazed surface which requires several firings. His work reflects his upbringing as a boy, his stepfather's anger and the absence of his mother. Many of Perry's work have explicit sexual content.

Perry frequently appears in public dressed as a woman and he has described his female alter-ego variously as “a 19th century reforming matriarch, a middle-England protester for No More Art, an aero-model-maker, or an Eastern European Freedom Fighter,” and “a forty something woman living in a Barret Home, the kind of woman who eats ready meals and can just about sew on a button”. In his work, he includes images of himself dressed as a woman, "Claire".

I think that Grayson Perry’s work is interesting because they each tell a story and sometimes you can’t really see the picture or story which makes you try and figure it out. It inspires me because I’d like to make a clay pot based on what I want it to be e.g. identity.