Williamson Art Gallery & Museum
On 14th March, we visited the Williamson Gallery to create our own pots however, I did spot a piece by Grayson Perry called ‘A Day in The Life’.
The artist invented the character Julie Cope to model as an ordinary British woman.
Perry produced six prints, one symbolising a decade of Julie’s life. The first image depicts her as a child on Canvey Island with bungalows, smoke in the distance and telegraph poles. The second frame shows her in a council estate dressed in boots, hot pants and leaning against a motorbike, which would later be the cause of her death, and the third she has taken her children on a picnic. The fourth print is Julie on a night out with a friend, similar to a photo-booth picture. The fifth thumbnail picture Julie at her second wedding and the sixth and final portrait is her in front of the Taj Mahal on a trip.
The artist used wooden blocks cut from a computer-controlled laser cutter to create the prints.
This piece is so emotional due to it being a time-lapse of Julie’s life in only six slides. It shows her as a child, to a rebellious teenager, a mother, a friend, a wife and a traveller. The prints are polaroid- like moments of sadness, boredom, depression and happiness.
The colours exploding from these pieces are incredible, they make the viewer emote and feel something different with each print. For example, the fourth image, to me, is terrifying- the couple look demon-like and seem to be standing in a graveyard. In my opinion, the colours are most bold in her visit to the Taj Mahal, specifically the ground in the front and towards the building. This may be because this is where she felt the most emotion but I’m not sure whether it is good or bad.
This was an amazing thing to see in person and the pictures do not do it justice. It is available to see up until March 26th, 2022.
