In Edinburgh to visit family, and take my mum to see Grayson Perry, “Julie Cope’s Grand Tour” at the Dovecote Studios. This is a perfect venue for these supersize tapestries. The venue is home to a working tapestry studio, and we are able to view the workshop and see other work being made, mostly by hand. Perry’s work was apparently made by machine and there is a detailed explanation of how the work was created, from detailed sketches to colour and embroidery swatches. Then we are given a delightful guided tour of the work, which my mum loves, as do I. The scale of the work, the detail in the narrative of the pieces, and the vibrancy of the colours are a joy. There is even a soundtrack to accompany the work. It is an immense rambling story that Perry has invented, then assembled as tapestry. A tapestry of a life. It is a reminder that artists work in many ways, and I should not be afraid to branch out.
