Grayson Perry says “the fun” of cross-dressing has gone now he is famous.
The Turner Prize-winning artist, who is often seen in elaborate dresses and make-up as his female alter-ego Claire, said his outfits are so extreme he is never hassled in the street.
He told ES Magazine: “It means people don’t feel you are deceiving them. A passing helicopter can see that I’m a man in a dress. But in many ways, being famous ruins being a transvestite. I’m no longer the anonymous weirdo on the street.”
Perry, whose artistic success has led to him presenting several TV series, writing books and putting on a one-man show, said he does not mind being referred to as a national treasure. “I’m quite happy to take it. It’s taught me that you don’t have to be a bitch to be funny,” he said.
His new show, at the Victoria Miro gallery in Mayfair, includes his trademark pots as well as carpets and sculptures.
He said the show, Super Rich Interior Decoration, was inspired by criticism he faced when he helped organise the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary summer exhibition last year. “It grew out of a conversation I had with one of the snarkier members of the RA after I’d hung their 250th anniversary show, who said, ‘Oh, I see what you’ve done: interior decoration.’
“He meant it as a put down — decorativeness is seen as almost a sin in certain quadrants of the art world — but my response was: ‘Yes. Get with the programme. I’m making things collectors will buy and put in their houses. I have no shame about that.”
