The crafty art of Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry was little known outside the art world when he won the Turner Prize in 2003 for his unconventional pots. Now he's become famous as the transvestite artist whose childhood teddy bear acts as an alter-ego. Currently he has an exhibition at the British Museum in London in which he's raided the collections for examples of folk art, holy relics, magical emblems and craft items from across cultures and ages, the things that complement or inspire his own art work. He calls it a celebration of the craftsman/woman: the skilled but anonymous makers who have for centuries created objects of great significance and potency but who have never been recognised as the artists they are.

This ceramic, called 'Tomb Guardian', is Grayson Perry's personal take on a sheela na gig, a grotesque carving that is occasionally found on mediaeval churches but may date back to a pagan era, usually of a lewd woman displaying her genitals. Two examples have already been blipped, by A Collector of Oddities and by Secret Garden . Their purpose is unclear - possibly to scare away evil spirits or to caution against the sins of the flesh. (Perry, a non-believer, is nevertheless keenly interested in belief systems.)

Seeing this exhibition was, apart from tomorrow's event, my chief priority in London and it had a nice resonance later when, to meet my family for a Szechuan meal, I travelled on the Underground from Hampstead to Bethnal Green in the company of an assortment of vampires, zombies, skeletons, ghosts, devils, pirates, gorillas and black cats. No sheela na gigs however - maybe they don't appear until the parties are over.

Both the exhibition and the restaurant, Gourmet San at 261 Bethnal Green Road, can be highly recommended.