This spring, Grayson Perry will navigate post-Brexit Britain in his own inimitable style by inviting Channel 4 viewers to help create his next major work – an attempt to capture what a divided country is thinking and turn it into art.
Grayson Perry: What Britain Wants will follow Grayson as he harnesses the power of Twitter and Facebook to invite the public to contribute ideas, images, phrases and photographs with which he can cover the surface of two enormous pots: one for the Brexiteers and one for the Remainers. Grayson believes that these are the two great tribes of our time – their differences far more fundamental than disagreement over the EU – and wants to explore their competing visions of the nation. The project will unfold in two parts:
Grayson is appealing on social media for material and crowdsource decisions about the pots’ colour, layout and content. Every week for ten weeks Channel 4 will release a short film by Grayson, in which he updates viewers on progress so far, sorts through the material coming in, and asks the public to vote on key questions about the pots’ design.
In these two new artworks Grayson will reflect the two competing narratives of what this country is, and what it aspires to be.
Viewers should express their ideas on Twitter via #leavepot and #remainpot and upload their thoughts to the Channel 4 Facebook page underneath Grayson’s video.
Then as the anniversary of the Brexit vote approaches, the channel will broadcast an hour-long documentary tracking the process first thoughts to finished pots, and following Grayson as he visits the most pro-Brexit and pro-Remain parts of Britain.The two pots will form part of Grayson’s most important British solo exhibition, ‘The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever’, which will be held at the Serpentine Gallery in June 2017.
Grayson Perry said “I’ve long said democracy has terrible taste. Am I enough of a strongman to take back control and make pottery great again?”
The documentary will be directed by Neil Crombie. The production company is Swan Films and commissioning editor for Channel 4 is John Hay.
