Locals are up in arms about Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry’s plans for a holiday home and gallery space in the Essex village of Wrabness
The designs would transform a derelict farmhouse on Simpsons Farm, overlooking the River Stour, with such eccentric features as statues on the roof and triangular ceramic tiles. The building was designed by FAT Architects, as part of the ‘Living Architecture’ project with the aim of giving members of the public access to high end architecture, and would showcase Perry’s work at various times throughout the year. But the Wrabness Parish Council has unanimously rejected the plans on the grounds that it would be a ‘blot on the landscape’.
This is a particularly apt occurrence for an artist currently engaged in the making of a Channel 4 documentation on the diversity of British ‘Taste’, with the argument that ‘the relationship between our taste and our social background is the elephant in the room of British social life’.
‘Grayson Perry on Taste’ is a 3-part documentary series will see the artist journeying through the UK to encounter the full spectrum of British tastes, from mingling with aristocrats in their country estates, to tagging along on a girl’s night out in Sunderland. ‘I spent thirty years building up and honing my North London middle class prejudices about other people’s bad taste,’ explained Perry. ‘Now I have taken those prejudices on safari with me to meet the various tribes that make up British class system’. He will then use the experience to create a major new work comprising a six 2×4 metre tapestries that will tour nationwide.
For Perry, ‘The relationship between our taste and our social background is the elephant in the room of British social life, and I wanted to explore this in an inclusive and non-judgmental way’: ‘Taste runs deep and it has been a fascinating and often emotional experience for me’
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