I find that I am predisposed to like any artist who uses the term ‘tractortastic’ with genuine gusto on national television. It is this enthusiasm that ensures Grayson Perry’s The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, for all the subversive wit and knowingness of his art, never quite tips into cynicism.

The exhibition juxtaposes Perry’s own work (pieces created for the show as well as older work) with selections from the British Museum. Often Perry’s work is easy to spot among the collection pieces, but some of the show’s best moments are those you cannot quite be certain of, and which force you to do a double take.

The opening section gives a foretaste of this productive confusion. Of three helmets, one is obviously Perry’s work; a shiny, modern motorcycle helmet adorned with the face of Perry’s childhood teddy. Next to this, Perry’s Early English Motorcycle Helmet (1981) almost catches us out with its patina of age suggesting authenticity. The real sting comes with the final helmet; a flamboyant horned creation in fur and bling, which you can imagine Perry having created. Closer inspection reveals it is an Ashante ceremonial helmet from Ghana, a serious British Museum object. Here there is the frisson of being caught out, but also the slight postcolonial discomfort at having assumed an important ceremonial headdress as being a light-hearted fantasy creation of a transvestite artist known for his deliberately over-the-top costumes. I am not sure exactly what this does for our experience of viewing the object, but I know I will not forget it in a hurry.

The exhibition uses these juxtapositions to explore a variety of overlapping themes including craftsmanship, authenticity, gender, pilgrimage, and belief, and also addresses elements of contemporary culture and its consumption. The intersection of these latter two themes is at the heart of the show, as is graphically represented by Perry’s drawing Pilgrimage to the British Museum (2011), which literally shows the museum as a site of contemporary pilgrimage. The Map of Truth and Beliefs tapestry (2011) similarly locates the British Museum at the heart of a fantasy topography of contemporary sites of pilgrimage from Auschwitz to Graceland.

Like so many artists, Perry is interested in the museum as a framing device, and is enthusiastic about the opportunity for his own work to be viewed in this non-White Cube context. Within the show several pots, You Are Here and The Rosetta Vase, both 2011, deploy Perry’s trademark combination of visual seduction and satirical social commentary to explore the rituals of contemporary cultural consumption.

Overall his emphasis on continuities of human behavior, in relation to the objects and places we consider special, are explored through the juxtaposition of the museum collection with his own contemporary objects of pilgrimage. This gives the exhibition a contemplative, yet playful tone, which is removed from the detached, analytical dissection of power dynamics often associated with institutional critique.

‘I get a bit tired of a lot of art because it’s not special enough. I like the British Museum. It’s full of special things,’ comments Perry. Go along and experience these ‘special things’ – both Perry’s and the British Museum’s – in this astute yet enjoyable show.

Until Feb 19

MIRANDA STERN