Grayson Perry: Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman

"Don't look too hard for meaning here.' With these words, Grayson Perry welcomes the visitor to his exhibition at the British Museum. In fact, it is all about meaning, and playing with meaning, not least religious ideas.

At the start of its run in October, Perry's exhibition overlapped with the BM's 'Treasures of Heaven' (reviewed here July 8 2011), and in its final weeks will sit above 'Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam.' Together with the earlier 'Journey through the afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead' - these other two blockbusters form a series on religious journeys to which Perry's display acts as a playful pendant.

The format is a series of groupings of anonymous objects from the BM's collection displayed alongside original works by Perry. Thus, it is at once a celebration of the anonymous and the celebrity. This unique format results in some startling juxtapositions, at times quite provocative ones.

Themes explored by the displays include pilgrimage, shrines, magick, pilgrim tokens, sexuality and craftsmanship. Many of the objects are sacred ones, from a range of sacred traditions. Perry's prerogative is not to document their history and function; rather, he plays with the relationship between craftsmanship, space and the sacred.

On shrines, he writes: "Shrines embody the essence of what I do. Significant objects in significant places to contemplate on. That's what the British Museum does too."

Perry's own works are dominated by the likeness of his teddy bear, Alan Measles, whom he has described as the benign dictator of his personal worldview. Alan Measles accompanied Perry on a pre-exhibition 'pilgrimage' to Germany, sitting in a shrine on the back of a specially commissioned motorbike, as recorded in a BBC documentary shown in October. The motorbike now sits outside the entrance to the exhibition, but Alan Measles has been replaced because Perry could not bear to part with his childhood teddy bear.

The final object (which is glimpsed as one moves around the displays) is the "tomb" itself, which takes the form of a boat 'sailing to the afterlife.' Perry describes the boat as a reliquary, its relic being a 250,000-year-old axe-head.

Go to this exhibition to be challenged and stimulated to reflect upon the nature of the sacred, the object, and place, but do not expect to be provided with answers.

For more details and tickets, see: www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx