Grayson Perry: an exhibition that inspired the artist within me

There is a Grayson Perry exhibition currently in Edinburgh and I had the pleasure of going a few weeks ago. By the time I went, the banners had been adorning the colonnades outside the national gallery for a few months already, but as usual, I didn’t find the time to go until a friend offered to get a ticket for me. I’d been busy and had convinced myself that work and going to the supermarket are more important. They are, but I tend to forget to just find the joy in life sometimes.

I went into the exhibition completely blind. I knew very little about Grayson Perry, only that he liked putting on dresses and that the exhibition was about pottery.

Titled ‘Smash Hits!’, it reminded me of the magazine from the noughties and I wondered if the pots that were to be displayed were going to be smashed and we’d only be viewing fragments and have to discern what the pot originally looked like for ourselves.

I like going in blind to things and it can be hard to do that these days. Our smartphones and social media have made it too tempting to quickly google something, so when I randomly pick up a new book, I sometimes find myself going to the reviews, or when I hear about a new tv series, I’ll search for the cast and creative team and release date so that I am armed and ready with as much information so I that I can absorb everything all the more effectively.

I like that I went in blind, that my assumptions about Grayson Perry were just that: assumptions. I went in with an almost completely blank slate. It was easy for the exhibition to wipe the assumptions away and replace them with beautiful and thoughtful artworks. The whole thing was so much more.

Whenever I go to a gallery or an artistic exhibition or event, I’m reminded that life is more than the day-to-day grind. It was especially useful for me that day, when my brain was swirling with work worries and constant fun headlines, such as “You Don’t Have a Career” and “Get a Proper Job That Pays Proper Money”, which had been blinking over my eyes like a news channel ticker. Going into a quiet white room and doing nothing but look at and read about someone’s artwork and their personal journey with it, reminded me that I love art and how it can represent a whole myriad of issues. Perry’s work comments on Englishness, masculinity, relationships, the art world, class divisions, social media, capitalism, and gender identity, to name a few. What I saw and took from that exhibition will be different to everyone else. It was a timely reminder for me to do what I love and to not slave away and burn myself out needlessly.

I typed the first draft of this on a Sunday afternoon in the notes application of my phone, desperate to capture the impressions and feelings before they drifted away, and as I came to the end, work thoughts started to creep back in. I wondered if I could get a few hours of work in before going to bed, as I knew I had a busy day the next day.

Should I?

Another day, I might have. Successful people don’t just sit around and scroll through TikTok all the time.

True, but they’re not necessarily doing extra work they don’t especially enjoy just to get ahead and be organised. I resolved not to do the work and do something fun instead. The work wasn’t due first thing the next morning, it would still get done, just a bit later. I won’t remember it in ten years’ time, and neither will anyone else really. But I’ll remember my own work, and my own journey.

Cheers to Grayson Perry, for giving me motivation one Sunday afternoon. Cheers to art and art exhibitions and the reminders and inspiration they give other artists and creators. To keep us thinking and doing.