Stereotypes

GRAYSON PERRY

Print For a Politician, 2005

Etching (3 plates)

I absolutely love this piece of work!

This print is what I am currently writing my essay on. I find the meaning so intriguing, the attention to detail incredible and it's funny!

When I first saw this print at the Government Art Collection exhibition at the Whitechappel gallery, I walked straight past it, until I read the text in the booklet about what it was about. I just thought it was some old boring medieval map.... which was exactly what Perry was inspired from. He wanted it to look like a medieval tapestry of a war from the past. But when you look at the print up close, all the people have been separated into smaller sub-culture groups and stereotypes. There are so many groups that I would never have been able to come up with. I think of the obvious big stereotypes like geeks, posh people, poor people, gays..etc However everyday we are constantly labelling people, when we don't even realise it. I will walk down the street and without even thinking about it, I will group people. I'll walk past a person with a pram, and straight away they are labelled as a mum. A person with a hood and baggy trousers, thug. Person with a briefcase, suit and a blackberry... banker. It's so strange, because I never realised I did this until I started to study this print. And I am so interested in the way that Perry sees  the world and has interpreted it on paper as a giant war between the sub-culture groups. Absolutely amazing, this piece has had such an effect on me!