There was much merry badinage between London’s mayor Boris Johnson and the artist Grayson Perry at last night’s presentation of the Columbia Threadneedle figurative art prize (which went to 24-year-old Lewis Hazelwood-Horner for his epic canvas of craftsmen at work in James Smith & Sons, the historic bespoke umbrella emporium on London’s Oxford Street). In befrocked alter-ego mode, the artist mounted the podium to promote The Art Room—a charity supported by Columbia Threadneedle—but also took the opportunity to take a sly dig at Boris by stating that his favourite artworks depicted the neglected brownfield sites and forgotten corners, all of which were ideal for development into low cost, worker housing and subsidized artists’ studios.
Later Mr P also expressed his hearty disapproval for Boris’ pet project, the proposed Garden Bridge across the Thames—despite it being designed by fellow Royal Academician Thomas Heatherwick—and instead revealed that he and architect Charles Holland (who is the co-creator of Perry’s A House for Essex) are planning their own down-river version of London Bridge, resplendent with tiled buildings and emphatically not falling down. Perry even offered the mayor an added inducement of being immortalized on this structure by a giant golden portrait sculpture. But Boris’ smile quickly faded at the artist’s cheeky proposal that this portrayal could also include some suggestively sited appendages which would rise and fall à la Tower Bridge to allow any tall ships to pass beneath…
