Chris Whitty’s Cat, 2020, was created as part of the first series of Grayson Perry’s acclaimed Grayson’s Art Club, broadcast on Channel 4. Every week the artist created a new work whilst hosting masterclasses to help teach the nation how to create art. Presented by the artist from his studio, alongside his wife Philippa, this was a show about the joy and solace of making art. Writing about the work in 2020, Perry said, ‘When lockdown first started back in March my wife Philippa and I went for a walk around the deserted City of London one evening. We came back through Gough Square where Samuel Johnson’s house is and a sculpture of his cat Hodge. When I saw this small life-sized memorial to a pet I was inspired. I was thinking of London and its myths, like Dick Whittington whose cat has its own statue on Highgate Hill. Chris Whitty is the Chief Medical officer for England and Chief advisor to the government during the crisis. He has become the face of the Covid pandemic. Chris Whitty’s cat is a domestic scale monument to the strange year we are all living through. This plague cat is covered in pustules and boils made decorative. Its form is inspired by an ancient Islamic incense burner.’