On Wednesday 20th September, the walking group took a trip to Edinburgh to see the Grayson Perry retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland. We travelled by coach to the centre of the city and once we had established our way to the gallery we were met by Duncan and Katherine. We had a tour of the exhibition, with some of us being led around by Katherine, and the group I was with, Duncan. We started off looking at the 4 huge tapestries depicting the life of Julie Cope, a fictitious character that Grayson says might be loosely his mother. The images follow her through the decades and are created into fabric from computer drawings by Factum Arte in Madrid. Another piece we were spoken to about is the motorcycle from the BBC4 radio show ‘Grayson On His Bike’. In the program, he travelled around Germany, with his bear Alan Measles in a throne on the back of the bike. The motorcycle itself is pink and lavish with bold cursive words ‘Patience’ and ‘Humility’, adorning it. It is a sight to behold. Another famous piece we saw was ‘Claire’s Coming Out Dress’. Worn at an early solo show in 2000, it is a vibrant yellow fabric adorned with embroidered imagery such as penises adorned with bows, bears (Alan Measles), flowers, butterflies and race cars.
We then took a break outside for lunch after which some of us headed home and some went back in for some solo exploring of the show. There is much to see with the exhibit stretching over seven rooms. It features many pottery pieces, prints and sculptures as well as a section reflecting on what it means to be English.
The show runs until 12th November.
Text and Photographs by ReConnect artist Morag Macgilchrist
