0:00:06 > 0:00:08For the past two years Grayson Perry has been working
0:00:08 > 0:00:12behind the scenes at the British Museum.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16He is been given a free hand to choose whatever he wants
0:00:16 > 0:00:20from the museum's collection of more than eight million objects.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29He's also been making 25 of his own works of art,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33ranging from his trademark ceramics, to a working motorbike.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40The resulting exhibition - The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman -
0:00:40 > 0:00:43is as if we had stepped into the once-buried treasures
0:00:43 > 0:00:46of a newly discovered civilisation.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49A civilisation built entirely around the obsessions
0:00:49 > 0:00:51of Grayson Perry himself.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55And presided over by a mysterious God -
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Perry's childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55Most of the things in the British Museum have been made,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58on the whole, by anonymous craftsmen,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02and so I wanted to somehow make their tomb.
0:02:02 > 0:02:08They are not soldiers, they are creators.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12All the loveliness they have made surrounds them.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16In a way, the unknown craftsmen, they are there
0:02:16 > 0:02:18in the British Museum.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21All of their legacy.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33In 2003, Grayson Perry won the Turner Prize
0:02:33 > 0:02:35for his richly decorated,
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and often sharply satirical ceramic pots.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Since then, Grayson, and his transvestite alter ego, Claire,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47have been a fixture of the British contemporary art scene.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52But this show will mark a radical departure for him,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54both in the scale of its ambition,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57and in the way he wants his work to be perceived.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01What I'm doing here,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04this pot is as much about the British Museum as anything.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07One of the central kind of ideas of the show is that
0:03:07 > 0:03:10the British Museum is a kind of place of pilgrimage,
0:03:10 > 0:03:11a kind of temple.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19This is one of the more pleasurable aspects of making a pot. Most of the hard work has been done,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21I've built the pot, put on all the colours.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24It's all looking quite pretty, in a kind of pottery sort of way,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26but when you put the transfer on it's quite nice,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29because you get quite a dramatic effect quite quickly.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33I love the way that the different colours come through.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35But I actually went round the museum
0:03:35 > 0:03:39taking photographs of all these faces from the collection.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41I'd build up the layers of transfers,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45they are very sort of ephemeral and wraith-like.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48If you want to get all poetic about it,
0:03:48 > 0:03:50these could be like the ghosts
0:03:50 > 0:03:53of all these different craftsmen coming through!
0:03:53 > 0:03:57I am increasingly being dissatisfied with the context
0:03:57 > 0:04:02of the contemporary art space as an arena where I want to put my work.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Things are given a spurious significance
0:04:05 > 0:04:08by being in the gallery now.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11It used to be you built the gallery to put this significant objects in,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14now you put insignificant objects into the gallery
0:04:14 > 0:04:16in order to give them significance.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19That, for me, I find, that's worn out now.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21When it was a novel thought 100 years ago,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24when Duchamp said "artists will just be people who point,"
0:04:26 > 0:04:28that was an interesting thought.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Now, it's boring. And I get a little bit tired of a lot of art
0:04:31 > 0:04:34because it's not special enough.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37I like the British Museum - it's full of special things.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Several of the artworks Perry has been creating
0:05:07 > 0:05:10reflect his feelings about the British Museum.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The Rosetta Vase invites the viewer to decipher
0:05:14 > 0:05:18the meaning of the show, in much the way that the museum's
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25But it's something of a tease.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29The exhibition has been taking shape in Grayson's imagination for years.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36One of the most important parts of my business is sketch books.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40This is my kind of ideas, and doodles,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43and what I work on slightly pissed in front of a telly.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45That was going to be the poster to the show.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48I don't know if it's going to be now.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51I thought that kind of, this idea of the British Museum
0:05:51 > 0:05:54as a kind of Tibetan monastery,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57which we were all making our pilgrimage towards.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I was trying to find the very first doodle,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03because what I'm building here,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05is The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman,
0:06:05 > 0:06:10and a classic idea of what is an exhibition at the British Museum
0:06:10 > 0:06:12is the contents of a tomb.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14I was thinking, what form do I want it to take?
0:06:14 > 0:06:17And I'd always wanted to make a ship.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22This being an ark of craftsmanship carrying the kind of remnants,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26or ideas, or skills into the future.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30I imagine it being six feet long, and I want in cast iron,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34and so this is quite a technically ambitious challenge for me.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36So I've made this,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39this is a quarter-scale maquette of how I want it.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44And then comes the small matter of scaling it up.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48As well as saluting the countless, nameless craftsmen
0:06:48 > 0:06:51who made the objects in the British Museum,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53as always, with Perry's work,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55there is an autobiographical motivation too.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58I mean, it might be quite interesting during
0:06:58 > 0:07:02this period to try and unpick what my motivation is
0:07:02 > 0:07:05for wanting to have a one-man civilisation,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08or to make a tomb of the unknown craftsman.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11I think it's a tomb for my father in some ways,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13though he's still alive.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16The kind of idealised...
0:07:16 > 0:07:18..utility man.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20The man who could do anything.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23You know, the man who could build a wall,
0:07:23 > 0:07:24rewire the telly...
0:07:26 > 0:07:28..service the car.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31I mean, I probably have an idealised idea of my father,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34because he left when I was very young.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37When Perry was five years old,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40his mother had an affair with the milkman.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44His father left the family home, and Grayson's life for ever,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48leaving behind a shed full of tools, and a motorbike.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53I've always loved motorcycles, all my life.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56And I've always particularly liked custom motorbikes,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59because I can't really build one myself, I haven't got the skills.
0:07:59 > 0:08:05So I've been waiting around for the money to commission one to be built. Wow!
0:08:05 > 0:08:07LAUGHTER
0:08:07 > 0:08:09- The big day has arrived. - The big day!
0:08:11 > 0:08:13This is the machine.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16- First impressions is, it's mighty! - Get across it.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Get across it.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22- Look at that!- Oh my God, it's like tractortastic!
0:08:23 > 0:08:28No, I love it! It's the sort of bonkersness of it.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33What's interesting about the custom bike scene is that it's a relevant
0:08:33 > 0:08:37and thriving example of custom craftsmanship, for the customer.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41A motorcycle, or a car, is a status object for the modern man,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43in the same way as a suit of armour,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46or an embroidered robe would have been for a Tudor king.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52So, to go to these guys and lay out a huge amount of money
0:08:52 > 0:08:58on something for display seems an amazingly timeless thing to do.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01I want people to sort of fight to not touch it, that's what I like.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07Because with ceramics, people always want to stroke them, because they're so seductive.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09So with that, that's what I want from this.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10This is the whole reason for the bike,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14this throne is why the bike is built basically.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16The head of my personal church -
0:09:16 > 0:09:18Alan Measles.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Good old Alan.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Good old Alan, well yeah, we've all got a lot to thank him for.
0:09:24 > 0:09:25Alan Measles is my teddy bear.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30He's coming up to 50, and he is my personal deity.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33And has been since childhood, really.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37He's a kind of benign dictator of my imaginary universe,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41and he's a possessor of all the good qualities of man.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46He's a kind of carrier of goodness and maleness.
0:09:48 > 0:09:49- That's his throne.- Wow!
0:09:51 > 0:09:55I've made him the kind of God of my art world.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58I've made quite a few works about him as God.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Because I think cuddly toys and God have a lot in common.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07It's a bit like driving a very fast traction engine.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18Grayson grew up in suburban Essex,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22in a household now dominated by a stepfather he disliked.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Throughout this often unhappy period in his life,
0:10:26 > 0:10:27he withdrew into a fantasy world,
0:10:27 > 0:10:32playing games with his teddy bear - Alan Measles.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39Alan Measles remains at the heart of Perry's imaginative universe to this day,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42and will play a presiding role in the civilisation
0:10:42 > 0:10:45he intends to create at the British Museum.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52In setting myself up against the objects of the British Museum,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56where a lot of those objects in the show, the people who made them
0:10:56 > 0:11:01would have spent their entire lives making just that sort of object,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03within a very narrow tradition.
0:11:05 > 0:11:11And they attained a sort of relaxed fluency that is impossible to match
0:11:11 > 0:11:15if you're only going to do that thing for a few hours,
0:11:15 > 0:11:16days, or weeks.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23This pot that I'm working on now is a Tomb Guardian.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30The idea of a Tomb Guardian, a kind of scary figure,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33that sort of stands at the entrance of something,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36a warning to evil forces,
0:11:36 > 0:11:42that whole idea is very prevalent in lots of different cultures,
0:11:42 > 0:11:48so I thought I have got to have a bit of that.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50I'm not a believer in any kind of superstition,
0:11:50 > 0:11:52but I kind of, those sort of things
0:11:52 > 0:11:55are the kind of bits of grit in the oyster
0:11:55 > 0:11:58that start people making stuff, those beliefs.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02This is kind of Alan, the dark Alan.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07I wanted to put the figures there because they would mark
0:12:07 > 0:12:10that you are going into a sacred space, almost,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13where the tomb was, and the original conception was
0:12:13 > 0:12:16you would be met by a multicultural guard force.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21The monolith looks like almost a kind of Hollywood idea
0:12:21 > 0:12:24of a kind of ethnographic Tomb Guardian.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27You can almost imagine it being made of Styrofoam,
0:12:27 > 0:12:31and Captain Kirk knocking it over to get into the tomb.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35That Romanian carnival mask, I just love it,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38the fact it's got a little dew drop on the end of the nose,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and it just is a very right object.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46It's been made by some guys just for the local festival or something.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51It's so imaginative, because it's fairly rudimentary materials,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54just some pictures ripped out of old magazines,
0:12:54 > 0:12:56some novelty sunglasses,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58and a pair of false teeth or something,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00but it's pretty potent.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05And the Sheela-Na-Gig, the reason I put that in is
0:13:05 > 0:13:08because I always wanted Alan Measles to have a great big hard-on,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11because that's one of the kind of last taboos,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15if you like, in imagery - is the erect penis.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21So the Sheela-Na-Gig is a kind of riposte to all the people who,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23for a second, might take offence at that,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26but then they would turn and see
0:13:26 > 0:13:29that 1,000 years ago, the female equivalent was hanging in a church.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47The fantasy scenarios young Grayson played out with Alan Measles
0:13:47 > 0:13:51were war games, which pitted boy and teddy bear
0:13:51 > 0:13:54against a brutal army of invading German soldiers.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01When I was a child, I had a very strong imaginary world.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05All of my games were related to this imaginary world,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08right from maybe the age of six or seven,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11right through till I was maybe 13 or 14.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16The benign dictator of that world was Alan Measles, my teddy bear,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21and he was like this hovering male presence, and I was his bodyguard.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26Hence me piloting his Popemobile, which is the motorbike -
0:14:28 > 0:14:30the Kenilworth AM1!
0:14:32 > 0:14:33In all his glory.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39Alan Measles' personal, holy, religious conveyance.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44Everything about it, the kind of ridiculous scale, the colour,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46it's bonkers.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50And it has the effect that I wanted to have. I can ask for nothing more.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Oh, I got my trousers caught in it!
0:14:53 > 0:14:55This is quite fiddly.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56So it might take a while.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Well, Alan Measles, when I was a child,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03our enemy were the Germans,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09because the Germans were the handy metaphor for the baddies.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13But of course that metaphor is now worn out.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15We live in a modern, 21st-century world,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17and Alan is the first to admit this.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And so, he's going on a kind of mission of appeasement,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26where he's going to lay to rest the childish metaphor
0:15:26 > 0:15:30of England versus Germany, goodies and baddies,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34and have a more nuanced approach to world peace.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37He's a God of moderate and understanding reconciliation.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43For the next 10 days, Grayson Perry will take Alan Measles
0:15:43 > 0:15:45on a tour of Germany,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49visiting celebrated sites of pilgrimage along the way.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Before he left for Germany, I caught up with Grayson
0:15:58 > 0:16:01at a biker cafe in Essex.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05- What do you want?- Cup of tea, please.
0:16:05 > 0:16:06Can I have one tea, milky, for him?
0:16:06 > 0:16:09One bacon sandwich, and a cup of coffee for me?
0:16:14 > 0:16:16So why did you want to do this journey?
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Is it a journey of discovery, to some extent?
0:16:19 > 0:16:23Well, I think a motorcycle as a psychic symbol
0:16:23 > 0:16:24for me is very loaded.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Because my father rode a motorcycle,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31and when he left, his motorcycle leant against the wall of the house
0:16:31 > 0:16:33for many months after he left.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36I can remember sitting on it.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38It was a...
0:16:38 > 0:16:41I think the motorcycle was a symbol for my father to a certain extent.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Well Alan Measles, of course, was my surrogate father in many ways.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48And how do you connect this with the British Museum
0:16:48 > 0:16:50exhibition at the end of this?
0:16:50 > 0:16:52How much is this trip going to inform that?
0:16:52 > 0:16:55In some ways, if you sort of see tourism as a modern pilgrimage,
0:16:55 > 0:17:00the BM is the most popular pilgrim site in Britain.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Part of the theme of the show is the whole idea of going to the BM,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05going to a museum.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09What it means to look at an object, the Rosetta Stone, the famous bits.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13I'm sort of interested in the celebrity artefact.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16I think every artist, if they really want a full-on career,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19they have to do a celebrity artefact at some point.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Damien Hirst did his shark, Antony Gormley has got Angel of the North.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25- Is this your celebrity artefact? - I don't know!
0:17:25 > 0:17:29I don't know if you can predict what will become your celebrity artefact.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33You're not afraid that people will think that's rather opportunist of you?
0:17:33 > 0:17:36You just said you are looking to find your celebrity artefact.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41I'm interested in the phenomenon of the celebrity object, because that's what a relic was.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43It's about that idea that something is special.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47I think a lot of art now, the only thing that qualifies it as art,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52is that it is in an art gallery. I think beyond that, it is quite difficult to justify.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56So that's the argument for going out on the road, and taking things out of the art gallery?
0:17:56 > 0:17:59I'm interested in visual culture in the world that's extraordinary,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03that's special, that's fun, that's beautiful, that's meaningful.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10The pilgrimage was to depart from Perry's home town, Chelmsford,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and end at Chelmsford's German twin town, Backnang.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Alan is on his throne at the back.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26He was given to me almost exactly 50 years ago, very close to this spot.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29I was born in hospital just up there - St John's Hospital.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31That's where I first met Alan.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36- It's the mayor.- Oh, the mayor, fantastic. Here he comes. Thank you very much for coming.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40The send-off turned out to be a gathering of all the Alans,
0:18:40 > 0:18:44with Grayson's peace mission given an official stamp of approval
0:18:44 > 0:18:47by the Mayor of Chelmsford - Alan Arnot.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51So it says here - behold Alan Measles,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55keeper of all good qualities pertaining to a man.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58A leader, a fighter, a sportsman, a father.
0:19:01 > 0:19:02How scrumptious!
0:19:02 > 0:19:08This is a personal message from myself, the Mayor of Chelmsford,
0:19:08 > 0:19:13- to Dr Nopper, the Oberburgermeister of Backnang.- Thank you very much.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17- Present it to him when you arrive. - We will!
0:19:19 > 0:19:22- Alan, we have to push this. - Just push on the back.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27- He won't need much of a push. Ready? - Ready.- One, two, three, push.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30There you go, it's all right. Thank you. ..Oh, it started!
0:19:34 > 0:19:37# Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
0:19:37 > 0:19:39# Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
0:19:39 > 0:19:42# Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
0:19:42 > 0:19:47# Oh you pretty Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you... #
0:19:47 > 0:19:50I had a vaguely airy fairy idea what the trip to Germany would be like.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54It was like a sort of soft focus shot from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57I'd be going along with the beautiful Bavarian Alps
0:19:57 > 0:19:59flickering past in the background.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03As it approaches, I am thinking "Oh no, it's going to rain for 10 days,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05"and the bike is going to break down."
0:20:05 > 0:20:07There is all those kind of anxieties.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11# We'll glide on our motor trip
0:20:11 > 0:20:13# With pride in our ownership
0:20:13 > 0:20:16# The envy of all we survey
0:20:16 > 0:20:19# Near Chitty, far Chitty, in our motor car
0:20:19 > 0:20:22# Oh what a happy time we'll spend
0:20:22 > 0:20:24# Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang... #
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Perry and Measles will be accompanied on their journey by a group of their friends,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32including Grayson's psychotherapist wife, Philippa.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41One of the central concerns of my work is that art is a religion.
0:20:41 > 0:20:48Contemporary art is a substitute, or maybe actually is a religion.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51So pilgrimage is a big part of religion, so I like the idea
0:20:51 > 0:20:55that there's people doing art pilgrimages all over the world.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06The Isenheim Alterpiece is an image that has been in my consciousness
0:21:06 > 0:21:07since I was at school.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10This is a picture that I love, I love its layers,
0:21:10 > 0:21:11I love its weirdness,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14it's almost kind of psychedelicness.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Well, I haven't looked yet. I'm really, really worried,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22because I might be incredibly disappointed.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25It's something I have been looking forward to seeing
0:21:25 > 0:21:26for about 30 years.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Whenever you build something up,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31the possibility of disappointment increases.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37It's not too bad.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02It's very difficult to see it beyond the fame of it.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06It's so iconic, because it's so different from any other painting.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Things like the feet, the way they're kind of gnarled,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11with that huge nail through them,
0:22:11 > 0:22:16it's almost pornographic, the way he's really enjoyed the contortions.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20It's like a Japanese tree that has been contorted.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25As a culture, we learn to look at art through things like this.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29When the go to an art gallery, we go to a special building,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31to look at a special object.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34That in a way, kind of gives anything a leg up into significance.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Whereas if you place it in a shopping centre,
0:22:38 > 0:22:44and it still has power, then I think you are onto a winner.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46If you put this in a shopping centre,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50and people did not know it, they would be awed by it.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Neuschwanstein - it's in this awesomely dramatic,
0:23:05 > 0:23:07beautiful setting.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10And it's the absolute epitome of a castle.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12MUSIC: "Ride of the Valkyries"
0:23:19 > 0:23:21The more I found out about it, about King Ludvig,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25this eccentric 19th-century monarch of Bavaria,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29who built this place as a kind of retreat from reality,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33as a kind of fantasy dedicated to Wagnerian myths.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38That, for me, was the most interesting thing about it.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47There is something very oppressive about this place.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52I think the conception, the idea of building a fantasy castle like this is marvellous and great.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55It's like he's instructed someone to come up with it.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58"Oh yes, I want a huge Gothic palace, I want a Moorish room,
0:23:58 > 0:24:00I want a Gothic room."
0:24:00 > 0:24:04But it's been carried out without much love, somehow, in my book.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07Alan is decidedly unimpressed.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13We're coming into a grotto. Is it real, or is it plaster?
0:24:13 > 0:24:15It's plaster.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Here we are top of a rocky outcrop,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22and he's built a grotto out of plaster.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26- That is, you know... - It's a fantastic grotto!
0:24:26 > 0:24:30That someone whose grasp of authenticity is really shaky,
0:24:30 > 0:24:31isn't it?
0:24:33 > 0:24:35The aspect is superb.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Poor old Ludwig.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48No, it's a very interesting relic...
0:24:48 > 0:24:52..to someone's psychology. That's what's interesting about it.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55This is someone's interior life writ large.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Well, today was mainly about matching up
0:25:14 > 0:25:16the reality to my fantasy.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21Riding into the Grayson-Perry-on-a-motorbike-shaped hole in the Alpine landscape,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and filling it up.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Because all the way along, I've held this image of me
0:25:30 > 0:25:32riding through this landscape, on this bike,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36and every time I see an advert,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40or a particularly ugly house, it kind of jars.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43But it's been a game attempt at fulfilling the fantasy.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46If this is an artwork, the central image of it
0:25:46 > 0:25:50is me taking Alan in his little chapel
0:25:50 > 0:25:54on a very sort of mythic journey.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56This is a kind of cliched mythic landscape.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00You know, romantic storybook land.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06I'm like this toy soldier playing out his horrible,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09twisted fantasy in this wholesome landscape.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12A bit like Ludvig of Bavaria!
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Oh, look, you've got the bear!
0:26:34 > 0:26:39- Yes, the bear.- Me too. This is my bear.- I see, beautiful.
0:26:39 > 0:26:40Alan Measles.
0:26:41 > 0:26:42Yeah, he's a god.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45So he's come on a pilgrimage to this pilgrimage.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48You see? Yeah.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51MUSIC: "Requiem" by Mozart
0:27:09 > 0:27:14When looking at a work of art, I think awe comes from the feeling -
0:27:14 > 0:27:16"I couldn't do that, I couldn't make that,
0:27:16 > 0:27:18"I couldn't think of that."
0:27:18 > 0:27:20It's that otherness.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22I look at many artworks, and think "I could do that,"
0:27:22 > 0:27:24but this, it's just incredible.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29Look at that door.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33That's the door at the gates of heaven.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38What's interesting is, what is the difference between this and kitsch?
0:27:38 > 0:27:39Because this is not kitsch.
0:27:41 > 0:27:42Because this has soul.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45This still has its authenticity,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50and it's made with complete conviction,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55and it has material honesty in it.
0:27:55 > 0:28:02This is passionate craftsmanship, design, artistry, belief.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11This couldn't be better.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15This is exactly how I imagined it. It's unbelievable.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18A pilgrimage in my mind is very much a mediaeval thing.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23Here I am with Alan, with my completely up-to-date pilgrimage, and here he is,
0:28:23 > 0:28:29in his shrine next to this magnificent structure.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34One day, maybe people will flock to see Alan on his motorbike,
0:28:34 > 0:28:36I don't know.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03My name is Friendly Teddy. Yay!
0:29:03 > 0:29:06- This is Alan Measles, say hello. - Hello.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15I am a contemporary artist.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19The kind of church that I have signed up to is contemporary art,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22and the White Cube is the temple.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25The Brandhorst Museum, in Munich,
0:29:25 > 0:29:30it's a very well-done example of the modern art museum.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34So it was interesting to put that in the context of all the other
0:29:34 > 0:29:38sorts of pilgrimage destinations that were on our route.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44The innocent delight of people at, sort of, rococo, compared to
0:29:44 > 0:29:50the knowingness, and the coolness of the audience for a place like this.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55They will look at every piece of dribble and cardboard
0:29:55 > 0:29:59as reverently as we would look at an altarpiece at the Wieskirche.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04I think there is a pair of inverted commas hanging for ever
0:30:04 > 0:30:08over those people, where they look through everything through an ironic window.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Inevitably, anything I do
0:30:10 > 0:30:12is in danger of ending up in a place like this.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15I hope that this bike and Alan
0:30:15 > 0:30:17resist that force.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20We will not be ironised! We will not be contemporary art!
0:30:20 > 0:30:24This is a real thing that has happened here, somehow.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47- Hello, Alan. - LAUGHTER
0:30:47 > 0:30:50GERMAN ACCENT: Herr Grayson, I presume.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53ALL: Prost!
0:30:57 > 0:30:59So, how has it been for you so far?
0:30:59 > 0:31:02It's been, you know, it's fun. It's great.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04When it really works, it really works well.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06I think, at the moment,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09the moment for me that really crystallised the whole trip
0:31:09 > 0:31:11was at the Wieskirche.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15I managed to park the bike right at the entrance of the church.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19There was Alan, sort of parallel with Jesus.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24So is this a real pilgrimage or isn't it?
0:31:24 > 0:31:26It is not an anti-pilgrimage,
0:31:26 > 0:31:28it is a pilgrimage turned on its head,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32in that instead of people coming to the shrine,
0:31:32 > 0:31:34I am taking the shine to people.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36If the mountain won't come to Mohammed...
0:31:36 > 0:31:39- It's called a royal progress. - Yes, that is what it is.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41A royal progress.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44- And this is your retinue. - Yeah.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47My Chaucerian band, I like to think of them as.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50That's sort of essential part of this journey?
0:31:50 > 0:31:52We are the ideal family on tour.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56- LAUGHTER - My ideal family.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59And why is Philippa here, in particular?
0:31:59 > 0:32:02What role, Philippa, would you say you have in this?
0:32:02 > 0:32:04- Map-reading. - LAUGHTER
0:32:04 > 0:32:07No, Philippa is a good map reader, that is what it is.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11What's your observation of this trip?
0:32:11 > 0:32:14What impact is it having, do you think, on Grayson?
0:32:14 > 0:32:17There is a form of psychology that actually originated in Germany
0:32:17 > 0:32:19called Gestalt.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22It's about completing something,
0:32:22 > 0:32:26about completing a whole sort of cycle of experience.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28I think there was something incomplete
0:32:28 > 0:32:32about those war games that Grayson played as a child
0:32:32 > 0:32:38and I think this is sort of like a peace process
0:32:38 > 0:32:40that completes that Gestalt.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44- I like that. That feels right. - Thank you.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48- Quite touched. It's good. - Aw.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51I like that. It's true. That is what it is.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53It's what I always do, though.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55I kind of do what I feel like I should do
0:32:55 > 0:32:59and then I find out what it was about later.
0:33:02 > 0:33:08The pilgrimage culminated in Chelmsford's twin town of Backnang.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Hello, Backnang!
0:33:34 > 0:33:39You may ask, "What is this man doing?"
0:33:39 > 0:33:41LAUGHTER
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Backnang is twinned with Chelmsford.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46I was born in Chelmsford.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Alan Measles was born in Chelmsford.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52We have been together for 50 years.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56And when I was a child, he fought the Germans.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01Because, in my games, so here was a place
0:34:01 > 0:34:03he comes to make peace with Germany
0:34:03 > 0:34:07because he is old now.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12I am moved by this wonderful, wonderful welcome
0:34:12 > 0:34:17and send-off and I thank you all for coming very, very much. Thank you.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19LIVELY BRASS BAND PLAYS
0:34:30 > 0:34:32'It was just as I hoped.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34'The band, nice weather,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39'the mayor and the mayoress. It was all good.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44'Even Backnang itself looks like a postcard of a German town.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47'When it happens I quite like the fact
0:34:47 > 0:34:52'when the world lives up to the cliche, lives up to the postcard.'
0:34:52 > 0:34:54Goodbye, Backnang!
0:34:55 > 0:34:58'I think the fact that I took Alan Measles around Germany
0:34:58 > 0:35:01'is really important to this show.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04'I really did it so therefore, for starters,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07'when they see the motorcycle, it has been on a real journey
0:35:07 > 0:35:11'which has a mythological element to it.'
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Which then makes a link to the fact that the people are there,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17they are coming, they are really coming to the thing.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22Then there are the kind of imaginative elements to the show.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26And the fact also that I have set a kind of model for them
0:35:26 > 0:35:28to try out themselves.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30I like the fact that people can go up and think,
0:35:30 > 0:35:32"I would like to do my own pilgrimage."
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Back in the UK, Perry has to finalise his selection
0:35:39 > 0:35:43of some 170 pieces from the British Museum's collection.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47The museum can only display around 80,000
0:35:47 > 0:35:50of the more than eight million objects which it owns.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57- These sort of things, yeah. - These are the moulded ones.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59I like these.
0:35:59 > 0:36:05'I am a great lover of things. I still want to see the actual object.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08'I think that is an important relationship to have.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10'I don't think we have changed that much.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13'People still come to museums, in a way, in the same spirit
0:36:13 > 0:36:15'as they would have trouped to Canterbury
0:36:15 > 0:36:17'to see the relics of Thomas a Becket.'
0:36:17 > 0:36:23These are from the Pagoda of Mingun, just upstream from Mandalay.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27'We come to see the actual thing,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31'made and touched by the craftsmen of history.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35'And marvel at their skill.
0:36:37 > 0:36:44'I suppose I am using that impulse in trying to create an exhibition
0:36:44 > 0:36:51'that suggests a pilgrimage to a place in our heads.'
0:36:53 > 0:36:59This is from western India. It's a little box shrine.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Oh, wow!
0:37:03 > 0:37:10Compelling that it is so reminiscent of a Gothic altarpiece.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Same kind of principle.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14I think it is probably more 20th century.
0:37:14 > 0:37:15Yeah.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22The very interesting thing about this, which may interest you,
0:37:22 > 0:37:24giving your concern with pilgrimage,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28is that this object travelled to Tibet...
0:37:28 > 0:37:30So how old is it?
0:37:30 > 0:37:33It was made some time in the 11th or 12th century.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35A really old one, yeah.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38It doesn't get my juices going as much as that at all.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41- Really? - No. There is something...
0:37:41 > 0:37:44I find there is more vitality in that
0:37:44 > 0:37:47and that is something I treasure more highly than refinement.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54I think it is quite unsettling to curators
0:37:54 > 0:37:57at the BM because it all seems vague to them,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00the way I am working.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02I look through the collection and go, "I like that."
0:38:02 > 0:38:06They'll go, "This is the significant one with the history and narrative
0:38:06 > 0:38:08"and importance." I'll go, "I like that one better."
0:38:08 > 0:38:11For whatever reason.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14It doesn't mean that my way of doing it is necessarily lesser,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16it's just different.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19I am there because I am an expert in looking.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23That's my job. I look at things and I trust my intuition.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27I make choices - that is why I am doing the show.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30The thing I am most impressed by is the proper richness
0:38:30 > 0:38:33but also the fact that there is a good eye at work.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37'I definitely want to put a folk costume in
0:38:37 > 0:38:41'because I have had a lifelong love of folk costumes.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44'It is just finding the one I find most aesthetically appealing.'
0:38:44 > 0:38:47These look quite new. Are they recent additions?
0:38:47 > 0:38:50They are quite bright colours.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56It is finding the costume that kind of satisfies the most boxes.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Would I want to wear it,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00is it nicely made as an object
0:39:00 > 0:39:05and does it have a kind of ethnographic significance?
0:39:09 > 0:39:11I've just not seen one quite like this before
0:39:11 > 0:39:13in terms of colour and texture.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Very subtle colour combinations.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19I like these dark ones because they wrong-foot me a bit.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22There is a sort of,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25I suppose if you ask most people what they think folk costumes,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28they would think stuff covered in this.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31What I like about these is there's a more muted palette
0:39:31 > 0:39:33there going on.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36I would definitely go out in something like this
0:39:36 > 0:39:38but I don't think they are my size.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09And so I acknowledge you in your artistic quest. Good luck.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12- That's great. Thank you. - All introductions must be made.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17I like the idea that if these objects were to travel nowadays,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20they are still carrying the same power.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Without a doubt. It's our job to make that living.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27The power only resides with the people around it.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30It is in our heads, the power, not the object.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33It is in both places.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36It's in here, and it's here.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40Your head doesn't carve that, your hands do.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43As an artist, I make things and in many ways,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47when I look at the cultural output of other times and places,
0:40:47 > 0:40:49I am envious.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53When you talk about these objects in that way,
0:40:53 > 0:40:55I suppose there's a bit of me that would like it
0:40:55 > 0:40:57if people talked about my things in that way.
0:40:57 > 0:41:02I would like my own objects to be treated with that much respect
0:41:02 > 0:41:04and to have that power, I suppose.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25At a foundry in Norfolk,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27Grayson gets his first look
0:41:27 > 0:41:30at the completed Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Tom has cast all the pieces I made in ceramic now.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36We are just starting to assemble them
0:41:36 > 0:41:39for a kind of, to see the sort of form,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42if you like, in its entirety for the first time.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46'It is an easy sentence to say,
0:41:46 > 0:41:50'"Could you please cast this in iron for me?"
0:41:50 > 0:41:54'It is over a year's hard work for Tom and his crew.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57'For me it is like my spiritual material.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59'Iron, for me, has a kind of mystique.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02'It's the material of heavy manufacture.
0:42:02 > 0:42:08'It's the material of sort of agriculture.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10'The rusting farm machine in the corner of the field.'
0:42:10 > 0:42:14Maybe shouldn't have left that until the very last!
0:42:14 > 0:42:16It is really exciting to see it
0:42:16 > 0:42:20because no-one has seen it all together before.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23It is our year's work, and all of a sudden,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25it looks like a boat, it's fantastic.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27It is exciting.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31If this is the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35he has the archetypal tool as the kind of holy relic, if you like.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38The tool that begat all tools.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42In this reliquary on the top here, like a sort of jewel,
0:42:42 > 0:42:48rests a real quarter-of-a-million- year-old flint hand axe.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51This is a genuine 250,000- year-old flint.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Person at the BM thinks it probably came from Essex,
0:42:56 > 0:42:58which is marvellously appropriate.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01This is like the precious jewel.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05And of all the things that I have kind of handled and seen
0:43:05 > 0:43:09and discovered in my travels through the British Museum,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12I think that holding one of these is the most potent and moving
0:43:12 > 0:43:17experience of the whole trip.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19Because when you put your hand around one of these,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21it is the ergonomics of it,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25you think of the way it was used and that connection, that simple,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28human connection, going back all those thousands and thousands of years,
0:43:28 > 0:43:31there is something amazingly potent about it.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34This is, you know, this is the beginning of craftsmanship.
0:43:34 > 0:43:39This is the holy grail of the craftsmen.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44I have made my reliquary there and it will sit on the top.
0:43:44 > 0:43:51It is kind of, the whole show rotates around this centre of this tool.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08I think that's right. Everything has to be preciously handled.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15Is it all right?
0:44:17 > 0:44:19Mind your backs.
0:44:19 > 0:44:20We are building the tomb.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24It is quite a nerve-racking moment because it bears
0:44:24 > 0:44:27quite a lot of responsibility for making a good exhibition.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29It is the thing where I have worked,
0:44:29 > 0:44:31it is the piece I've worked with the British Museum on.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35It is covered in casts that either are related to things
0:44:35 > 0:44:39or actually of objects in the British Museum.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58It is the thing that I wanted to feel
0:44:58 > 0:45:01the most kind of real.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03You know, it is a real thing.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05In the end, it is about whether they find is beautiful
0:45:05 > 0:45:09and fascinating and gorgeous and attractive and moving.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14I do think, being surrounded by all of this amazing history
0:45:14 > 0:45:17and the different cultures from all over the world and,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21to a certain extent, a lot of pieces from my own history,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24that does add weight to this very moment.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26That is what this show is about.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29That is why this is the centrepiece to this show.
0:45:29 > 0:45:34It's about coming on a journey through the world's culture
0:45:34 > 0:45:38and also my own mythology with Alan Measles,
0:45:38 > 0:45:43with works from my past and the kind of themes I am interested in.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48You come to this and this is a sort of, like, yeah,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51this is the end of the pilgrimage.
0:45:51 > 0:45:57I like that idea that it has a real full stop to it.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Half an inch forward. That's it.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11My kind of instinct, I suppose,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14would be to pile it on until it was completely overwhelming.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Some of the other things, the figures in the show,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19there is a lot of detail in them you can't ever see.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Because it is so covered over with stuff.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26I almost feel one can sense that from when one looks at the thing.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28It is like the gargoyles at the top of the cathedral,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31made by the ancient craftsmen.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34They knew no-one would ever see them, but somehow,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37when you look at the cathedral, you know it's there.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50The fact that the archetypal craftsman
0:46:50 > 0:46:52in my personal mythology is my father,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55that, to a certain extent, has faded.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58That doesn't mean that it isn't informing me unconsciously
0:46:58 > 0:47:01all the time, I am open to that idea.
0:47:01 > 0:47:06In fact, I came to this museum at six years old
0:47:06 > 0:47:10and we got into the lift and the man in the lift said,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13"What do you want to see?" I said, "I like models."
0:47:13 > 0:47:16He said, "They've got model boats in the Egyptian department."
0:47:16 > 0:47:19We found the model boats and I was pretty disappointed with them.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21They were pretty basic.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25They weren't half as glamorous and shiny and intricate
0:47:25 > 0:47:28and authentic as the ones I had at home.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31I was pretty disappointed with the British Museum.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34Maybe this is payback time, I don't know!
0:47:35 > 0:47:41You know, making a whole show that has a model boat for a centrepiece.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45I think, quite often, we are that transparent.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47LAUGHTER
0:47:49 > 0:47:52- Neil! - Hello. How are you?
0:47:52 > 0:47:55Did you do this specifically for this exhibition?
0:47:55 > 0:47:58I did it specifically for this place.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00- This place in this exhibition? - Yeah.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04They are all the things I thought people might come with before.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06- They come with in their head? - Yes.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10That could be... That says more about me, probably, than about them.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13People will actually be walking around inside my head.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15That is what this exhibition is about.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17A walk round Grayson Perry's head.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20The first three things they see, the three helmets.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23People say, "Which one is the BM object?"
0:48:23 > 0:48:25- You go for the middle one. - Of course.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27I assumed that was the BM one,
0:48:27 > 0:48:31- and that you had designed this. - Because it is quite tinselly, this.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36It is a great bling hat, isn't it? I had assumed this was yours.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40I thought, this looks like this is Grayson being playful.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44I then discovered it's the great Ashanti chief's headdress from Ghana.
0:48:44 > 0:48:50All these are solid gold and it is a great ritual object.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53And it's, well, I looked at it with completely fresh eyes.
0:48:53 > 0:48:59Good. If I can make YOU look at something with fresh eyes...!
0:48:59 > 0:49:02When my letter came through the door and you saw my proposal,
0:49:02 > 0:49:03what did you think?
0:49:03 > 0:49:05What I thought of at once was Sutton Hoo.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10Because the Sutton Hoo burial is really,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13seems to me, the nearest thing we have got to this exhibition.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20You have got this extraordinary assemblage of objects.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23From Ireland to the eastern Mediterranean.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Some of them are ritual, some of them are just luxury.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29Some of them we don't know at all what they are about.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33- They come from all over the known world.- Together, yes.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36And they are there in that place. Something to do with one man.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41I thought you were suggesting creating something very, very alike.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43That's what your letter made me think of.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46This is actually what all archaeology is.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50- Looking at this funny grouping. - That is very beautifully put.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52I am quite touched by that, yeah.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55- Now, this is... - LAUGHTER
0:49:55 > 0:49:59- This I had to have in because... - She's got to be here, hasn't she?
0:49:59 > 0:50:01This still astonishes people.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05Because they don't realise that here, on our doorstep...
0:50:05 > 0:50:07On the church, you put this figure.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10What's new to us is this kind of conversation.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13These objects that we would never have put together.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16And all the way through, the way you have put objects
0:50:16 > 0:50:20either from different bits of the museum's collection
0:50:20 > 0:50:22or with your objects,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25in conversations that just couldn't happen otherwise.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30Now. Now you see, Sutton Hoo was right. This is Sutton Hoo, isn't it?
0:50:30 > 0:50:33- Here is the funeral ship. - The funeral ship.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37Laden with treasure and all the great things from the museum.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39- The Roman dish. - Yeah. Flood tablet.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43The Ife head. This really is the shrine, isn't it?
0:50:43 > 0:50:47It is the end point of the whole journey of the exhibition.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50It is also the end point for the purpose of the museum, isn't it?
0:50:50 > 0:50:55Here, in one place, are all these things.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00And they are all travelling together for some kind of purpose.
0:51:00 > 0:51:05The job of everybody coming through is to sort out what that purpose is.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58Here you are, Grayson. In the British Museum.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00Yeah. I don't think it has fully sunk in yet.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04I have been so involved with the making of it all
0:52:04 > 0:52:07that it feels like I should fit,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09it should be, "Life's ambition, tick."
0:52:09 > 0:52:11You know, but it doesn't quite feel like that yet.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15It says this is, of course, the Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18You slightly don't fit that mould, do you?
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Even when you arrived here, you were certainly not anonymous,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24and you're going to be less anonymous by the time
0:52:24 > 0:52:25this exhibition goes on display.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30Yeah. It is ironic that I am, I suppose, a celebrity artist.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33I said that almost as if like saying,
0:52:33 > 0:52:38"I am one of these plonkers that come in on their vanity projects."
0:52:38 > 0:52:43In order to highlight the fact that I am actually
0:52:43 > 0:52:47tiptoeing around my own seriousness, that is what I am doing.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51So I'm protecting my tender relationship with beauty
0:52:51 > 0:52:55and culture from the harsh forces of the media spotlight.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59I kind of say, "Ha! Yeah! This is just me having fun,"
0:52:59 > 0:53:02but in fact, this is something I have dedicated my life to.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The way that you have always said, "I am a craftsman.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08"I belong to this tradition. I am proud to be part of this tradition."
0:53:08 > 0:53:10You have always said it.
0:53:10 > 0:53:15In that sense, you do, you are here to draw attention to the rest of you.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19To say, these works were made by artists, too.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21Yeah, and I think it is interesting that, you know,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24I am not ashamed to come from a contemporary art tribe,
0:53:24 > 0:53:28but by coming here to the museum, for me, has highlighted
0:53:28 > 0:53:34the very traditions and orthodoxies of the contemporary art world.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37Here is a museum for a general audience
0:53:37 > 0:53:40and its objects come from all different directions.
0:53:40 > 0:53:47There isn't this accepted thing of, "This is a contemporary art object."
0:53:47 > 0:53:49In a way I want to say, I am an artist.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51I am not a contemporary artist, I am just an artist.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54What's Alan's view of the exhibition?
0:53:54 > 0:53:57He thinks it's entirely about him.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01But there was something inescapably missing from the show.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Where was Alan Measles himself?
0:54:07 > 0:54:10It is amazing to think it has been on this long journey.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12- It looks pristine, doesn't it? - It's a motorbike.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15It is made for transportation and it survived very well.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19- That is Alan's... - That is not Alan.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21No, that is his stunt double.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25That is Pinny. She is the same age and actually from the same...
0:54:25 > 0:54:27- That is Pinny? - Yeah.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Doesn't this sort of undermine the whole project?
0:54:32 > 0:54:34I thought this was Alan Measles' project.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36Why would Pinny be here and not him?
0:54:36 > 0:54:39He doesn't want to sit in a museum for three months.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41- I feel cheated.- Do you?
0:54:41 > 0:54:44I quite like the idea that, you know,
0:54:44 > 0:54:46he is out there and than entity, as a god.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48I didn't want to,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52I almost feel like the reality might kind of...
0:54:52 > 0:54:56Do you know how many precious things there are in this museum?
0:54:56 > 0:55:01Worth tens of millions of pounds? Things that are priceless.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07But somehow Alan Measles is so priceless you are not prepared to...
0:55:08 > 0:55:12I think if we are really going to get therapeutic about this now...
0:55:12 > 0:55:14Why not?
0:55:14 > 0:55:17It would be that I don't even trust the British Museum
0:55:17 > 0:55:19to look after Alan, he's too precious.
0:55:23 > 0:55:28'Grayson's refusal to part with Alan Measles reminded me
0:55:28 > 0:55:32'of something I had witnessed more than a year ago in Germany.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35'A sort of Rosebud moment where I'd learnt that to unlock the secrets
0:55:35 > 0:55:39'of Grayson Perry's one-man civilisation,
0:55:39 > 0:55:41'a teddy bear is the key.'
0:55:41 > 0:55:43Big day for Alan.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52'How lovely to see you. Welcome to the world of Steiff.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57'It's still a little bit like it used to be.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02'I was born here in Giengen in 1847.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04'When I was one and a half,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07'I was diagnosed with an illness that changed me.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10'For children, only the best is good enough.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13'Yes. That's how it all began.'
0:56:13 > 0:56:18'I didn't see you there. Never mind. I am in charge here.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22'Most important of all, he invented me.'
0:56:29 > 0:56:34'It's so dark here and it is so creepy.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39'Oh dear.'
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Alan is horrified. It is against all he stands for.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46It, it's...
0:56:49 > 0:56:54- 'what do we do now?' - 'Shall I tell you? I have no idea.'
0:56:54 > 0:56:59I am worried about him. I wonder what's going through his head.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03Why is it so upsetting,
0:57:03 > 0:57:07even though you might have expected it to be like this?
0:57:07 > 0:57:10Because it feels kind of exploitative.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15When I think of the relationship I had with my teddy,
0:57:15 > 0:57:21and how completely potent and unspoken a symbol he was,
0:57:21 > 0:57:26if you had asked me when I was a child, I would have expressed,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29through my actions, how important he was to me
0:57:29 > 0:57:31but I wouldn't have been able to put it into words.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34It's testament to how precious he was that he is the only artefact
0:57:34 > 0:57:36from my childhood I have.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40I don't have any photos, I don't have anything else at all.
0:57:40 > 0:57:46- It all resides in him? - Yeah. It is pretty potent.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48He is a serious talisman.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50I think we'd better get you back for some therapy.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52LAUGHTER
0:57:52 > 0:57:55It was a joke that I set up Alan was a god,
0:57:55 > 0:57:57but also not,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00in that he is the nearest I have got to a god.
0:58:01 > 0:58:06Because he is, when you, religion,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09its power, is often because someone has grown up with it.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13It is part of their, it has shaped them emotionally,
0:58:13 > 0:58:16it's their family, society.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21Therefore, it's woven into their emotional DNA when they grow up.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24That is what Alan is for me, that is as near as I've got to that.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28It is the same limbic system in my brain
0:58:28 > 0:58:30that has embraced Alan,
0:58:30 > 0:58:34that embraces religion in people who believe.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37So therefore, it is a serious thing.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40It is a match to a religion.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47It can seem like a joke but it is coming from the same place.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50MUSIC: "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" IN GERMAN
0:59:04 > 0:59:06Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:06 > 0:59:09E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk