Who are you?

At the National Portrait Gallery in London

Grayson Perry asks us, "Who are you?"

"Who am I?"

I'm a mum, I like going to exhibitions, I love museums and galleries, I watch TV,

I like going out, occasionally I draw and make things, I like Grayson Perry.

I watched Grayson Perry on the telly, his series of the same name,

'Who are you?'

So I went with my kids to see his exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

My fifteen year old had watched the programmes with me.

At eleven the other two had gone to bed by the time it was on,

so they weren't keen but I had promised them hot chocolate and that we would also see

the Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square next door.

For this exhibition, there's a route, a journey around the first floor. 

Grayson Perry talks about identity in terms of a journey,

"I have attempted to portray the character of the identity journey

they (the subjects) are facing."

You begin at Grayson Perry's self portrait, 'Map of Days'.

A self-portrait as a fortified town with walls that he suggests are his skin.

I notice that the walls are thick, heavy lines.

Very near the Map of Days was a Families Activity Base

where my younger two were given sketchbooks and a pencil each. They were happy. 

From 'A Map of Days' you head to Grayson Perry's 'Comfort Blanket'.

All things British.

Grayson Perry gives you something to "wrap yourself up in".

Things "we love, and love to hate".

I'm British, is this me?

I've never been to Number 10, Offa's Dyke or Glastonbury.

I do love a 'cuppa' though.

I queue with the best of them.

I've never met the Queen.

So who are these people in this exhibition?

'Melanie, Georgina and Sarah'

"Three women, big and proud, who want their size to be seen as positive."

Their dresses are decorated with images of food and women.

Food and self-image are so intertwined, I get that.

I don't want my daughters to get that though, they will soon enough.

Food can be glorious and so can women's bodies.

'Modern Family'.

Male parents with a mixed-race daughter.

 Grayson Perry tells us that they teach us an important lesson,

that parenting is hard work, needs thought, is not something you can take for granted.

You don't often notice good parenting, it just happens.

But there are times when you high five yourself,

little moments when you could burst with love and pride for your kids.

This family appears to be revered on a pot, canonised, enthroned in the clouds.

Hurrah for Grayson Perry, celebrating good parenting.

Kids are part of the next story too.

Four kids, I know what that involves.

'The Ashford Hijab'.

Mum, Kayleigh is a convert to Islam,

and on this hijab, Grayson Perry shows a journey from the temple of consumerism,

to Mecca across a busy road.

Watching this couple in the TV series was very moving.

'Memory Jar'. 

Alzheimer's disease, robbing this couple of memory and identity.

Memories, family photos, are being snipped away.

The thought of either myself or my husband losing memories of our life together

is something I find hard to deal with.

In our family, an older generation, some memories are slipping away, it's disconcerting.

Though I've never thought of it as an act of vandalism, ravaging with scissors,

but more of a river gradually and slowly washing away the bank.

I have to mention 'The Huhne Vase'.

Chris Huhne found fame (infamy) perverting the cause of justice,

all over a speeding offence.

Surely I can't relate to this? 

I loved what Grayson Perry had to say about this story.

"I have smashed the pot and had it repaired with gold

to symbolise that vulnerability might be an asset..."

I'm not that broken, but we all know what it is to have cracks.

But imagine being repaired, put back together with gold?

Vulnerability, gleaming and attractive, something beautiful.

As a friend said about this work,

"Grayson Perry has been very kind."

I'm not sure, having watched the programme, that Chris Huhne really got that.

As for my kids identity, for now anyway.

Not on a pot, a blanket or a hijab, those sketchbooks were very revealing.

My son, asked a new question.

"What is your story?"

He's not interested in identity, he wants genres, characters, main events.

My daughter made a list.

A visual list, collecting little bits of Grayson Perry's work.

The Queen's eye, a horse's head and The Earl of Essex.

Above are just a few of the people Grayson Perry asked, "Who are you?"

To see more, see the exhibition for yourself at the National Portrait Gallery

on until 15th march 2015.

Details on their website here.

The question remains: Who are you?

Staying with the National Portrait Gallery, I have to show this lady,

she has helped formed my identity,

as a woman,

as a voter.

Emmeline Pankhurst 1858-1928.

Things We Do In Bed

Things We Do In Bed,

not my words but the title of a quilt exhibition in Danson House, Bexleyheath.

Wait! before you stop reading because needlework isn't your thing...

...I give you stories of Birth, Sleep, Sex, Illness and Death

The quilts are made by many different people:

The anonymous to mark a birth, the carers of the dying, the sufferer of depression, the widow, the wife, the daughter, the grieving, artists, prisoners, men, women, makers from the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Looking at this list, there are some pretty significant events in people's lives that have been marked by the making of a quilt.

Birth

Quilts can provoke debate. Here Grayson Perry responds to the abortion debate, and perhaps the messiness of giving birth. Mind you this quilt is incredibly ordered, rhythmical and symetrical.

No mess, no disorder. 

This quilt was made for a baby in the 18th century.

This photo only begins to show how incredibly fine and delicate the stitching is.

This quilt was made later in the 19th century, again for a cot.

Each piece of fabric probably has its own story to tell.

Sleep

Like the patchwork squares in the last photo, these squares also tell stories, each one made by a different person, men and women.

Exhibited on a prison bed.

Each square was made by a prisoner, taught to sew by Fine Cell Work (a charity).

They work with prisoners to give them a skill and a chance to earn an income.

In this project they considered sleep, getting a good night's sleep in prison,

which can be quite problematic.

The green thread in the pillow in this square was picked apart from the prison sheets,

'...so there is a bit of the prison in my square'.

This blew me away...  the skills, the dreams!?

Sex  

Fifteen quilts with words, the connections of sex.

On a chaise longue!

Illness 

By the time Karina Thompson gets to 70, her heart will have beaten unnoticed 2.6 billion times.

Quilted images inspired by her echocardiogram. 

A quilt made at her husband's bedside.

The making of it, keeping her company when he could no longer communicate.

Again a quilt made in response to tragedy.

Encouragement sent to her son following his car accident, sewn into hexagons of hope. 

Stones and painkillers sewn into a quilt.

 

Intending to feel the weight of all this,

the experience of lying under this quilt of stones and painkillers turned out to be,

"not too heavy at all, it felt quite nice".  

Death

 A 19th century widow's quilt.

These two quilts, grey and white, were made by a daughter in response to her mother's dementia.

The grey fibres resembling her mother's hair and the crazy patchwork design, her skin...

...eleven years later, remembering her in white.

As I said, these quilts, essentially bedcovers,

were on display in the bedrooms of Danson House.

These two displayed where the original bed would have been,

underneath the ceiling from which drapes would have hung.

Whatever your thoughts on needlework,

it certainly doesn't shy away from addressing the big things in life.

Things We Do In Bed is housed in the bedrooms at Danson House, a Georgian Villa.

The quilts were chosen and brought together by the novelist Tracy Chevalier.

Things We Do In Bed is on until 31st Oct 2014 in Danson House.

Not open on Fridays & Saturdays,

and learnt by experience, not open until noon each day.

Visiting information here.

Tracy Chevalier quilts too

 Buy a rafflle ticket to support Danson House and you may win a quilted cushion she has made.