Grayson Perry

This weekend, I was thrilled to go see Grayson Perry's 'The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' at the British Museum. In his latest exhibition, Perry shows new works alongside objects made by unknown men and women throughout history from the British Museum’s collection. Through utilising traditional craft features and techniques, the artist here he asks us to believe everything he says or shows is real and "fact", which I feel he does incredibly convincingly and wittily simultaneously - with some works in the collection, it is not until you get close to examine that you notice an image of the infamous Alan Measles, Perry's beloved teddy bear, which for me really highlights his light hearted approve and the sense of fun he injects into his practice. I particularly loved a piece of wall text, in which Perry claims 'part of my role as an artist is similar to that of a shaman or witch doctor. I dress up, I tell stories, give things meaning and make them a bit more significant.' The brilliant BBC Imagine documentary Grayson Perry and the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman gives further insight into the exhibition, following Perry for more than two years as he creates 'his own imaginary civilisation'.

Grayson Perry's exhibition will be shown at the British Museum until 19th February 2012; definitely not a one to miss!

Untitled (2011) and detail, wool & appropriated textiles

Luis Buñuel, director of the 1967 film 'Belle de Jour', suggested that we are indoctrinated at a young age into life long sexual, social and religious patterns. But how much of our "adult" life is influenced and shaped by our childhood? Do the people, places, objects we are exposed to ingrain certain ideologies and values? Surely giving a little girl a doll so realistic she has to feed and change it is simply setting her up to expect a life as a mother, as explored in a paper published by University of Oxford's 'The Future of Human Reproduction' department in 2009.

I remember as a young girl, I would watch my grandma knit for hours, admiring the beautiful objects she produced. Then, like Mrs Willard's mat in Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar', they would become worn and eventually ruined performing their "function". Perhaps it was these memories which influenced my thoughts on the constraints of motherhood? In his work upon 'The Uncanny', artist Mike Kelley explores childhood toys and the effect which they can have, citing Freud's theory of the sensation of the uncanny. Kelley claims the uncanny to be linked with the 'art' experience; an interaction with an object which is then 'tied to the act of remembering... something long known to us, once very familiar', which I feel is key to the work above. Showing a snapshot of my partner, the unclarity of the image both immortalises and destroys the photograph at the same time. Playing upon the idea of an image or experience being "ingrained", both as fixed in memory and embedded within the fabric, this work questions the value & reliability of memories, relationships and the effects of these upon our being.

Mike Kelley is exhibiting at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art until the 15th January 2012.

Sexual Education; Lacking "Down There"

Sex is a huge part of our lives - worldwide, we have sex 120 million times a day according to the recent 'Sexual Nature' exhibition at the Natural History Museum. So it amazes me at the lack of knowledge about it available to young people. This week, the BBC published a report claiming 'that one in four pupils do not have any sexual and relationship education in school.' I was one of them. Sadly my "sex ed" did not arrive until I was around 15 (by then I had begun having sex), and was part of a PSHRE (Personal Social Health & Religious Education) course, consisting of a lengthy discussion on love, marriage and children. Not wanting either children or a wedding ring, I wondered were I fit in. And what about other teenage girls out their in my position? Feeling biologically destined to, in the words of Betty Friedan 'breed and serve men'? As a society, are we happy to continue filling little girls' heads with ideas of the mysterious essence of "femininity", and to leave them dreaming of babies and housework? What I was even taught about myself biologically was relatively shady - my periods were not explained to me until I approached my mother in tears one wondering why I was bleeding "down there".

Apparently, I was becoming a woman.

So is this what qualifies female? 'Tota mulier in utero'; does it simply come down to the belief woman is a womb? As Germaine Greer comments, little girls are not encouraged to ask questions or explore their genitalia, and consequently are left feeling ashamed, and quite frankly baffled by them! I was told nothing of contraception, and had to seek this information for myself, along with my two best friends, from a local Streetwise Clinic. Teenagers are calling out for better information regarding sex, and a program which covers the apparently forgotten issues of 'sexually transmitted infections, relationship and sexual consent advice or contraception'. Surely teaching only biological functions to teenagers simply reinforces the classic gender stereotyping. Scientists tell us now that our brains are conditioned to be male or female; "The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems," claims Professor Simon Baron-Cohen. Does this simply suggest that female "empathy" comes down to the mythical maternal instinct, while the male brain's ability for to take on more functional roles in society allow him to succeed in providing for his dependent family? When did genetics come in to determining gender roles? I feel it is time we consider how and why these social and cultural gender identities are reinforced through generations, and, from a more personal perspective, the damaging effect they have on women such as myself who are made to feel "unfeminine" and alien in society simply through they sexual ideals - because the truth behind gender and sexuality has been hidden under a proverbial fig leaf now for far too long.

For more information on the recent BBC sexual education reports, please see http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/15260571 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15255649

Laurel Nakadate at The Zabludowicz Collection

On a routine trawl through The Guardian's online Culture section on Monday, I was happily surprised to come across an interview with performance and video artist Laurel Nakadate; having been to see her latest exhibition at The Zabludowicz Collection at the end of September, I was eager to read what the artist herself thought of the works on show. Nakadate's work plays upon traditional notions of gender, power, relationships and sexuality, using herself and her body very literally within her practice.

"Men just started talking to me. That's how it all began... I told them I was an artist and asked them if they wanted to make something with me. They all said yes and we'd go back to their apartments – either then or another day – and act something out." Nakadate, 2011.
A desire to connect with strangers coupled with an ability to challenge conventional gender relationships makes Nakadate's work incredibly powerful to me. Constantly teetering between hilarious, tragic and unnerving, pieces such as 'Oops!' (2000), and 'Stories' (2005) play upon a sense of voyeurism, whilst presenting her audience with situations in which I found awkward laughter the only way to break the tension.

Though a selection of her photography is on show, I feel she conveys her ideologies far more directly and powerfully through her videos. Pieces such as 'Love Hotel' (2005), and their use of relatively basic video techniques are reminiscent of home videos, and, in the context of this video, home made pornography, playing upon the male gaze
and modes of viewing women. Underlying influences of feminist theory I feel can be seen in works such as 'Exorcism 3 (Dancing in the Desert for Britney)' (2009), in which her erotic dance moves question the focus and role of the female in media throughout Western culture. The highly sexualised use of the artist's body reminds me of Tracey Emin's 'Why I Never Became A Dancer' (1995), a similar exorcism of the standards and moral expectations subjected to women. Similarly, her 'Lessons 1-10' (2002) left, in which she filmed her posing as a life model, subverts the traditional role of the female model in art; here, she is not only challenging the female form in art, but the relationship between spectator and spectacle. While conventionally the feminine subject is passive and subjected to objectification, Nakadate actively asserts herself and her body as a contributor to the work, signally a shift in power, elevating herself above a typical objective viewing.

Though Laurel Nakadate herself claims 'you can never level the playing field when a man and woman are in the same room', for me, she embodies a fierce resilience towards conventional gendered roles. She empowers herself through ownership of her own body, and presents a fresh take upon the feminist "body art" of the 1970s.

For the artist's interview with The Guardian's Eleanor Morgan, please see http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/oct/09/laurel-nakadate-video-performance-artist