I made this print for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition that I curated in 2018. The RA has these arcane rules written into its constitution, one of which is that there have to be a certain number of painters, sculptors, architects and printmakers among the Academicians at any one time. Somewhat bizarrely, I was elected as a printmaker - so I thought I'd better make a print!

The image was inspired by an Indian miniature I saw: an equestrian portrait where the horse was enormous and the person sitting on it was tiny. I was also playing with the idea of riding a machine that has righteousness on its side - social justice and equality - trampling over things like racisms, sexism, poverty and homophobia with its big spiked tires. The unhelpful toxic waste coming out of the machine is tolerance, free speech and democracy - things that the social-justice warriors really struggle with.

I like the slight misregistering you get with a woodcut, and the chunky black line that is very nice to work with. I love the way the ink gets really physical and thick on these huge prints.

Grayson Perry