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The Adoration of the Cage Fighters

Grayson Perry2012

Arts Council Collection

Arts Council Collection
London, United Kingdom

The scene is Tim’s great-grandmother’s front room. The infant Tim reaches for his mother’s smartphone – his rival for her attention. She is dressed up, ready for a night out with her four friends, who have perhaps already ‘been on the pre-lash’. Two ‘Mixed Martial Arts’ enthusiasts present icons of tribal identity to the infant: a Sunderland A.F.C. football shirt and a miner’s lamp. In the manner of early Christian painting, Tim appears a second time in the work: on the stairs, as a four-year-old, facing another evening alone in front of a screen. Although this series of images
developed very organically, with little consistent method, the religious reference was here from the start: I hear the echo of paintings such as Andrea Mantegna’s The Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1450).

Text courtesy of the artist.

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  • Title: The Adoration of the Cage Fighters
  • Creator: Grayson Perry
  • Date Created: 2012
  • Physical Dimensions: 200 x 400cm
  • Rights: The artist. Gift of the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery with the support of Channel 4 Television, the Art Fund and Sfumato Foundation with additional support from AlixPartners
  • Medium: Wool, cotton, acrylic, polyester and silk tapestry
Arts Council Collection

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