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Sunday 22 November 2009

The ‘transvestite potter from Essex’

Ariane Bankes talks to Grayson Perry about his work and the judging of the Koestler Awards

He has a keen eye for the original, authentic, witty, touching — the very qualities I found in his own disarmingly frank memoir, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl. Which brings me on to the subject of Claire, born of a complex of emotions around a childhood which he wryly described on Desert Island Discs as ‘pretty normal, really — divorce, a bit of domestic violence, some low-level mental abuse...’ but which nevertheless left its scars. Claire, too, has taken the art world by storm: six foot plus of radical chic, sometimes topped off with a pair of rabbit ears on a headband, and very good legs. Anyway, I wanted to know: what did he/she wear to meet the Queen? And what’s the royal protocol with rabbit ears — do they count as a hat, and, if not, does it matter? The answer is, Claire wore a short green dress and no ears, and the Queen clearly took a couple of moments to place her, after which she was all charm, of course.

Grayson has little time to be a ‘leisure tranny’ now — life’s just too busy — but with all the events he’s invited to he gets to dress up ‘three or four nights on the trot’ every week. He still designs most of his dresses himself, though the design course he teaches at Central St Martins provides him with several more each year. ‘I generally have a new one on the go,’ he says, and they’re spectacular — beautifully embroidered or appliquéd with Grayson motifs: a collection of his dresses alone would make a stunning exhibition. When I ask him if he ever wears the same one twice he laughs his infectious, down-to-earth laugh, ‘I should say so — I’d never have enough to go round. And I don’t keep a dress diary like some of the celebs — at least not yet.’ From the little-girl frocks of the early days they’re now getting bolder, more fetishistic, more revealing: it’s anybody’s guess what he will wear to open Insider Art on 11 July — which also happens to be his daughter’s 15th birthday.

www.koestlertrust.org.uk.