Grayson Perry: Typical Man In A Dress

Grayson Perry's going on tour and is bringing out a new book, The Descent Of Man.

Isn't that great news?

PS Can't find a complete list of dates, I know he's coming to Worthing, too, for example.

Arts News: Like A Rhinestone Rhino

Rhinestone Rhino Unveiled In The City's Gay Quarter Ahead Of Birmingham Pride

BIRMINGHAM’S bronze bull statue now has a new sparkly glamorous cousin!

The “Rhinestone Rhino” has been unveiled in the city’s gay quarter ahead of this weekend’s Birmingham Pride festival.

The life-sized sculpture is set to become another iconic piece of artwork for the city along with the famous bronze bull statue which stands under the Rotunda.
It stands atop a roof at the junction of Hurst Street and Bromsgrove Street at the entrance to the Southside, gay village, Chinatown and theatre district.
The project is a joint collaboration between the city council, Birmingham Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community, GB Training Ltd and the Southside Business Improvement District (BID)...
It was made out of a polystyerene mould, carved into a rhino shape and then coated in fibreglass.
Its “bling” was created out of 80 pieces of smashed mirror and dozens of fake diamonds..
There is a memory stick put inside the statue containing music, photos, videos and stories from the city’s lesbian and gay community.
Southside BID manager, Julia Chance, said a rhino was chosen because it was the symbol of the gay rights movement in the United States in the 1960s.
Birmingham Mail.

Although I haven't seen it in the fibreglass flesh yet, I'm quite the fan of this.
Art in public spaces is a good thing - and the odder the better, I say.
Rather than statues of "great men" of war and empire, let's have more stuff like the Milton Keynes cows, the Cerne Abbas Giant, the Angel Of The North, and, well, anything by Henry Moore.
They should give Grayson Perry a grant to create endless public erections to add to the gaiety of the nation.

The Rhinestone Rhino reminds me of a personal favourite; the wonderfully literal Elephant And Castle statue in Elephant & Castle.
But can we stop this nonsense that its makers often advanced about it - that the rhino "was the/a symbol of the gay rights movement."
Eh?
Can you show me one person who thinks that it was?
Or knew that it was?
Or who knows what it is without Googling?
A purple rhino appeared on some gay pride posters in Boston in 1974 - chosen it was said as the animal was gentle til provoked.
It soon faded from view - end of (very minor footnote to our) story. 
Claiming the rhinocerous as some great gay rights symbol is quite daft.
Which, for me, just makes this Rhinestone Rhino statue all the better.
All art is quite useless and that.