The face of a nation - but is it ours?

Last year there was Damien Hirst's platinum, diamond encrusted bling skull. Now there is Grayson Perry's skull, revealed here for the first time; a nostalgic observation on the changing face of Britain.

Perry scoured central London tourist tat shops for much of the material that encrusts his bronze and sees it as a relic of Britain's lost empire.

The Perry skull came about after he was asked to search the large Arts Council collection to curate a new touring exhibition which opens on Saturday. He chose to concentrate on work from between the 1940s and the 1970s, a time when he believes British culture was slower, more austere - and perhaps all the better for it.

"The initial idea came from the fact I'd chosen quite a few bronze sculptures for the exhibition, including Eduardo Paolozzi's The Frog and a head by William Turnbull," said Perry.

"I liked the fact they were great big lumps of bronze and I thought I want to do a great big lump of bronze. It was also around the time of Damien Hirst's skull."

Perry said the Hirst skull - called For The Love of God, which is what many observers mouthed when it was reported to have been sold for £50m - was little more than "a piece of bling". He added: "We get the art we deserve and it's almost like Tony Blair's legacy is Damien Hirst's skull."

Skulls appear to be in vogue in the art world. The artist Stephen Gregory, who has been making art from skulls since 2001, admitted to the Guardian: "It seems there's a big fashion for them at the moment."

Gregory covers the surface of his skulls in malachite, pearl or lapis lazuli. His embellished skulls cost £25,000 and are sourced from a dealer in scientific antiques. Perry would prefer that his skull be seen as a piece of folk art and he has covered it with representations of Britain, such as the union flag, Anne Boleyn, the routemaster bus, Beefeaters, a postbox, a ban the bomb symbol, a bowler hat, the Queen, and so on. Perry hopes people will identify more with these than bling diamonds. "I am heavily prone to nostalgia for sure," he said.

"I spent time scouring the tat tourist shops of central London. Things I could get a mould for are on there. The piece looks like its been dragged from the sea which, given we are a maritime nation, is appropriate. It's a maritime warrior giant and it's also a relic of our colonial past.

"It's saying the empire is over and we should get over it; it's good that we are a less powerful nation. I wouldn't presume to say what should represent Britishness today but modern day, post-Ikea Britain does fill me with trepidation.

"It's unfashionable to want to hang on to things from the past but when you see character being stripped away - old poor mess is what makes places interesting."

The exhibition has been organised by the South Bank centre's Hayward Gallery. Jude Kelly, artistic director of the South Bank, said she thought Perry's skull was fantastic and thought provoking. "The way he has used the skull to speak of Britain, the kinds of iconography he has used - it's all in there. I do think it's a skull of the people."

On the question of whether it is a relic of a Britishness that has disappeared, Kelly said: "That's a question it poses - has it gone? - and I'm not sure it has.

"It's like a massive collage and it makes you think in your own head what being British is all about."

· Unpopular Culture is at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, from May 10 to July 6.