“The original spark of inspiration for this tapestry was a poll run some years ago to find Britain’s most popular painting. The winner was J.M.W. Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire (1838). I wanted to make a kind of decorative palimpsest of English identity so I chose four recognisable works by four key English artists: Mr and Mrs Andrews (c.1750) by Thomas Gainsborough, The Fighting Temeraire by Turner, the Seaweed wallpaper (1901) designed by John Henry Dearle for William Morris & Co., and High Sky (1991) by Bridget Riley. Each image perhaps stands for a formative thread in our nation’s culture, the rise of new money from trade, the industrial revolution, new technology, the rise of socialism and popular cultural upheaval. They also stand for different aspects of our character, nostalgia for past wars and cosy hearths, a love of our countryside and occasional bouts of creative freshness. The tapestry is the first artwork I specifically made for my home and it also hangs in the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.” Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry