Wikio - Top Blogs - Religion and belief

Friday 9 September 2022

Church Times - Art review: The Vanity of Small Differences by Grayson Perry in Salisbury Cathedral

My latest review for Church Times is of The Vanity of Small Differences by Grayson Perry in Salisbury Cathedral:

'... through his narrative, “Perry asks us to see ourselves as others may see us, and he also asks us to acknowledge the ways in which we judge others.” This, the Dean believes, “is worthy of exploration in a cathedral context” because “self-questioning and self-reflection are vital disciplines in the life of faith, just as welcoming and honouring people from every walk of life is part of our vocation as a place of prayer and worship and as a place which is visited by thousands.”

One of the purposes of liturgy and worship is to look at ourselves in the light of the gospel, making self-reflection a core spiritual discipline. A point that the Dean likes to make to visitors is that, although these tapestries were made ten years ago, they are, after Brexit, the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and the war in Ukraine, “of more relevance than ever before” in their exploration of how united or divided we are as a nation.'

Click here for my Artlyst interview with the Dean of Salisbury Cathedral and Beth Hughes, Curator, Arts Council Collection about the tapestries.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delerious? - It's OK.

No comments: