The Turner winning artist takes a break from his live tour to answer readers’ questions on everything from class and gender identity to whether he can still make controversial art
Grayson Perry hasn’t, he reports apologetically, dressed up specifically for our Zoom call, but for an event he will be attending afterwards. “I wanted to look like a lady who lunched,” says Perry, who is wearing mauve silk, bright red lipstick, giant specs and Thatcherite hair. Since winning the Turner prize in 2003, Perry – with his alter ego Claire – has become one of the UK’s most recognisable and admired artists. He is known primarily for his ceramics, but his other work includes tapestries and a house in Essex. He is also a curator, writer and broadcaster – and his Channel 4 show Grayson’s Art Club, presented with his wife, the writer and psychotherapist Philippa Perry, was a lockdown highlight. Currently on tour with A Show for Normal People, Perry takes a break to answer Guardian readers’ questions on art, life and cats.
How do you classify “normal” people? (Amy, London)
I’m interested in those things that hover in our unconsciousnesses – class, gender, identity – until we have to think about them for whatever reason. So normal is whatever’s normal for you, until it’s not. Everybody’s got their own version that’s constructed by their background and history.
