Grayson Perry

This ceramic vase features an inscription, Britain’s Union Jack flag, and a scenic landscape, all rendered in blue and white. Grayson Perry often intertwines contemporary social themes with historical approaches to object- and image-making. This work resembles a funerary urn. Its styling as a classical amphora includes an open neck from which cremated ashes could blow away. This design underscores the defiance in the inscription: “May my ashes blow away on the winds of change, I love life / I love England.”

–Dominic Molon, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art

Grayson Perry, winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, is renowned for his ceramic vases richly decorated with imagery that comments on the history of art, contemporary society, and the artist’s own personal history. Inscribed "May my ashes blow away on the winds of change, I love life I love England" around the shoulder of the vase, this handmade coil-built vessel takes the shape of a Greek amphora. The front of the form is draped with the Union Jack in blue and white, referring not only to the British flag but also to the ceramic traditions of blue and white Delft pottery and Chinese export ware produced for the European market. On the back is a scenic landscape also rendered in blue and white. Skulls are embedded in the surface of the clay handles to underscore the theme of life and death. Instead of creating a lidded funerary urn, Perry has adapted the open-necked classical amphora from which his ashes can blow away. This sense of freedom and his reference to “the winds of change” in the inscription perhaps allude to his identity as a transvestite.