British Museum - Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman

Grayson Perry: The Tomb Of The Unknown Craftsman

Don't look too hard for meaning here.
i am not a historian, i am am artist. That is all.
When i was  young I had an imaginary civilisation.
I became an artist and my civilisation traded with the world and all its history.
Now i am not sure where my imagination stops and the world starts.
Deep in the mountains of my mind there is a scared place where is a monument to skill.
The tomb of the unknown craftsman is just as real as everything else in this museum,
the ideas and beliefs behind it and just as real.
You are real pilgrims.
That i am an artist and not a historian and this is an art exhibition does not mean it is  any less real.
Reality can be new as well as old, poetic as well as factual and funny as well as grimes.
The tomb of the unknown craftsman could be another name for the British museum.    

Kenilworth Am1

Kenilworth Am1

Kenilworth Am1

Grayson Perry, an English artist, famous on his beautiful ceramic vases and transvestite. i think this is the first time British Museum held a contemporary artist exhibition.

before you come in the show room, you would see an exaggerating and colourful motobike. Garyson and his pope Alan Measles rode this bike to Germany as a trip to gain famous of Alan Measles.

inside, there are many heritages, ancient items and of coure, Grayson Perry's work.  this exhibition is extremely thought provoking and clever. i almost write down every single word that Perry explained for his show.

there is another quotation i like, especially the bold words :

few civilisation spring up spontaneously or develop in isolation. culture borrow and adapt. i enjoy artefacts where this give and take in more obvious and dissonant. new religions try to recruit by using the sites and symbols of the belief system they are trying to replace. craftsmen make artefacts they think will appeal to visitors from abroad. sometimes they get it wrong in a charming way, creativity is often just mistakes. 

   

 everything in British museum is contemporary once.

we trust maps, maps are meant to be trustworthy diagram of reality. contains some very human bias. maps of feelings, beliefs, and the irrational.    

   

Postmodernism: style and subersion 1970-1990

what is postmodernism ? postmodernism is hard to be defined. postmodernism is a concept that is difficult to be given a conclusion precisely in theoretically, because the majority important postmodernism masters and theorists stand against any convention system and forms to defined postmodernism. postmodernism has influenced in various area, including religion, literary criticism, sociology, linguistics, architecture, history, anthropology, visual arts, and music.          

according  to Adrian Holme's note, postmodernism characterised by following features
1) in architecture - the interpenetration of the inside and the outside.
2) social and historical context - question over value of, or validity of the idea of , progress
3) collapse of ideologies- continued growth of mass culture, information networks
4) uncertainty
5) relativism
6) "end of history"(Fukuyama)
7) collapse of grand narrative (Jean- Francois Lyotard)
8) deferral of meaning (Derrida)
9) the decentered self (also found in modernism)
10) awareness of otherness (or "other") - other culture, gender, sexuality
11) concerns with language
12) playfulness
13) irony
14) plurality (of styles)
15) ornament and decoration
16) complexity and contrdiction
17) intertextuality - texts allude to cite or quote other texts- wide application of model of language
    ( structuralism and post-structuralism)
18) a questioning of the real - hyperreality, simulacra (Baudrillard)



in this exhibition, there are lots excited objects and works displayed. the postmodernism, this term is too broad and wide, so how to put the postmodernism statement into the exhibition and how to choose the displaying items to convey the message to the audience are hard work for the curators.  

the works are including : architecture, furniture design, houseware (almost countless teapot sets!!!), jewel design, fine art, fashion, music, published, graphic design, film and lot more.      

next few are what caught my eyes:

the other figure/ L'altura figura (Giulio Paolini) 1984

i thought this work is simple and thoughtful, also it seems narrative and dramatic, and looks better in the V&A .  
the label written " melancholy was one aspect pf the postmodernism regard for the past"

protect me from what i want (jenny Holzer)

 "Jenny Holzer, prompts critical reflection on desire, its causes and effects, and the whirlwind of commerce that surrounds it." these words were showed on the busiest area in the world- new york time square, this work really a thought provoking one, it raises a question about the consuming system. 

trolley, consumer's rest chair (Frank Schreiner)

also question about the consumerism.





butoh, the japanese dance, before i read the article written butoh is a reaction to the western ballet. butoh is dark, aslow and heavy, unlike the ballet always emphasize light and upward movement.

daivd byrne in big suit

joy division closer album sleeve ( Peter Saville)

 
 
and my most interested objects are the music relatives undoubtedly,  from cover sleeve of joy division and giant suit for david byrne, i fully enjoy in these selections, especially the perfect ending: new order's bizarre love triangle, such a beautiful, strong and memorable finish.

 
PS: i can't help to dance while i listening this song at the end of exhibition!