Inside Grayson Perry’s powerful “Delusions of Grandeur” at the Wallace Collection
On the occasion of Grayson Perry’s 65th birthday, the Wallace Collection unveiled Delusions of Grandeur – its largest and most ambitious contemporary exhibition to date.
This temporary show is a rich and provocative testament to Perry’s imagination, blending satire, auto-biography, and a deep engagement with history and craft.
At the centre of the exhibition is Shirley Smith, a fictional, impoverished artist from London’s East End. A survivor of trauma and mental illness, Shirley serves as Perry’s invented counterpart and a vessel for exploring layered themes of identity, class, biography, and emotional resilience. The exhibition, Perry explains, is a kind of portal “where there are shifting layers of authenticity, of history, biography and mental health.” His invitation to visitors is simple but profound: “Give yourself up, and you will enjoy it all the more”.
The exhibition spans a wide range of media; including tapestries, ceramics, silverwork, furniture, prints, and even a duvet cover. The works are often direct responses to pieces in the Wallace Collection itself. Fragonard’s famous The Swing, for example, is reimagined as a bold neon tapestry entitled Fascist Swing, stripped of its male figures and brimming with political and cultural commentary.
To bring Grayson Perry’s immersive vision to life, the Wallace Collection collaborated once again with Imagineear, its trusted partner in audio tour experiences. Using Imagineear’s robust Mirage™ device, the audio tour offers visitors a compelling and deeply personal way to engage with Perry’s work.
Having previously created audio tours for some of his earlier exhibitions, Perry was keen to do the same for Delusions of Grandeur. From the outset, the process was highly collaborative. Imagineear offered guidance to Perry and the Wallace Collection team on structure, how long the tour should be, how many stops to include, what kind of imagery to use, and how to shape the visitor experience. Together, they developed a set of questions that would guide the narrative.
The resulting audio guide is unlike any other. Perry is unscripted, spontaneous, and unfiltered, his voice leading visitors through the exhibition with the same wit, vulnerability, and insight found in his artworks. “This is the most personal tour we’ve ever worked on,” says Will Penswick, Project Manager at Imagineear, “and, in many ways, the most ambitious in terms of audio storytelling’’.
So how was this intimate tone achieved? The audio began as a recorded conversation between Grayson Perry and Dr Xavier Bray, Director of The Wallace Collection. In post-production, the team at Imagineear carefully edited the dialogue, reshaping it into a seamless monologue. The effect is one of Perry speaking directly to each visitor – an experience that feels natural, fluid, and deeply human.
While Perry’s voice is the primary guide, the audio tour introduces another character at key moments: Shirley Smith herself. Perry, though her creator, felt it wouldn’t be authentic to voice Shirley. He envisioned how she would sound – grounded in her imagined history and background. Imagineear then sourced a voice actress who could embody her fully. A recording session was arranged, and Shirley was brought vividly to life.
The audio experience is not just an addition to the exhibition – it’s integral to it. It doesn’t aim to be technically exhaustive or universally translatable. Instead, it tells a story with emotional honesty and creative daring. As Will puts it, “When you have an exhibition like Sir Grayson’s there is no need to embellish the work. You just help make space for their voice to be heard.’’
The Titanic arrives in Seattle…and Brisbane!
As the hugely successful Titanic. The Exhibition continues its journey around the world, Imagineear is proud to continue providing audioguide devices to its visitors.
Curated by Claes-Göran Wetterholm, the exhibition features carefully selected artefacts and personal stories that best convey the philosophy behind the display: fostering empathy and a sense of connection with all those aboard the ill-fated ship.
Imagineear has partnered with Musealia throughout the exhibition’s travels across Europe and America, and will continue to provide its audioguide devices as the exhibition arrives in Seattle.
One visitor, Leonardo T. said, ‘Great setting, full of original items from the passengers and crew. Audio is precise and full of information as well as curiosities. Definitely worth seeing.’
In addition, Titanic. The Human Story, recently opened in Brisbane, Australia, the first city to host the exhibition in Australia, which has already sold over 60,000 tickets in just a few weeks. ‘By focusing on the human aspect of the Titanic’s legacy, this exhibition introduces a fresh narrative that sheds light on previously untold stories of the Titanic’s passengers and crew’ said Luis Ferreiro, Director of Musealia.
This revamped version of Titanic. The Exhibition, has been in development for the past three years. Imagineear is supplying 600 handheld Mirage™ devices, 3 Audio Visual Sync stops, and an Imagineear Web App, enabling visitors to access the audio content on their own smartphones.
