Outrage over cross-dressing potter’s C-word cathedral art

AS a cross-dressing artist, he is used to controversy. Now Grayson Perry is raising eyebrows again after a piece by him questioning the existence of Heaven and featuring obscene words was chosen as the centrepiece of an exhibition at Hereford Cathedral.

His Map of Nowhere is opposite the cathedral’s famous Mappa Mundi in the exhibition of works inspired by the 13th century Christian map showing how scholars then interpreted the world.

Yesterday lobby group Christian Voice criticised the cathedral for displaying Perry’s piece. Director Stephen Green said: ‘I would expect it to want to display works that lift the human spirit and not demean it, or seek to question the existence of God.’

Perry, pictured, claims people are wedded to neat endings and would love to have either Armageddon or Heaven at the end of our existence. In notes accompanying his piece, the 57-year-old says ‘life doesn’t work like that – it’s a continuum’.

The work takes a circular form with Perry’s head at the top and his arms and legs to the sides. In the space reserved for his body are terms containing strong language, including the word c***.

One visitor, Stephen Davidson, 49, from Gloucester, said: ‘It was a surprise to see something questioning whether there was a Heaven in the cathedral.

‘I think he is trying to shock people for the sake of it.’

The Rev Canon Chris Pullin, chancellor of Hereford Cathedral, said displaying Perry’s piece ‘is not an endorsement of ideas he seems to express within it, but an opportunity for all of us to see what a significant contemporary artist has produced as his own Mappa Mundi’. He added: ‘We have had many appreciative comments about the exhibition.’