insideKENT Magazine Issue 55 - October 2016 | Page 38

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
grayson perry cont.

Lamentation, Grayson Perry, 2012

Creating the Tapestries
At the beginning of the
nineteenth century, Joseph Marie
Jacquard, a Republican from
Lyon, France, invented a
mechanical loom that used
punched cards to control the
weaving of a design. Fast forward
two hundred years and the rapid
development of the computer,
the Jacquard-loom has found a
new purpose – the output of
images created or manipulated
in a digital environment.
Perry is an artist who has
embraced the opportunities this
provides.
Traditionally, tapestries would
have taken teams of workers
many months, if not years, to
weave. However, today, as Perry
explains: “…one of the attractions
of using tapestry now is the
relative speed with which I can
produce a substantial artwork,
compared to other media in
which I enjoy working, such as
ceramics or etching…. and they
were woven at dazzling speed
on a huge computer-controlled
loom that can produce a fourby two-metre tapestry in just five
hours…”
Each scene is rendered perfectly
in wool, cotton and silk.
Produced using a mechanical
loom, each design was hand
drawn and coloured using
Photoshop to create a real sense
of handmade quality in the fabric.

The Adoration of the Cage Fighters, Grayson Perry, 2012

Exhibition Information
The Vanity of Small Differences opens on Saturday 8th October at The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
in Canterbury, and will be accompanied by a special programme of linked events and activities for all ages
(see www.thebeaney.co.uk for more details).
The Beaney proudly hosts the first regional exhibition of the tapestries in the South East which will form part
of this year’s Canterbury Festival.
Exhibition Kindly Sponsored by: The Canterbury Auction Galleries
Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences
Saturday 8th October to Sunday 4th December
Special Exhibitions Room, The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge
18 High Street, Canterbury
www.thebeaney.co.uk

This exhibition has been supported with loans from the Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre London and British Council. Gift
of the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery with the support of Channel 4 Television, The Art Fund and Sfumato Foundation with additional
support from AlixPartners.© Grayson Perry. Photography © Stephen White.
Founded in 1946, the Arts Council Collection is the UK’s most widely circulated loan collection of modern and contemporary British
art and includes important examples by all of the UK’s prominent artists. For more information please see www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk.

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