Art Collections Online

This work has the appearance of being a woman in traditional Welsh costume. The gender, however, is ambiguous with the inclusion of a beard. Glory Glory is series, which Ford produced for the Wales pavilion of the 51^st Venice Biennale. It explores people’s stereotypical conceptions of national identity. Ford said,

 I began by remembering and misremembering the emblems of some of the national stereotypes I grew up with: the Russian spy, the terrorist, the redneck, the image of the outsider, the foreigner, the witch.[…] I became intrigued to see that the trappings that conferred identity and the strength derived from being seen to belong were just those that opened the way to objectification and onwards to extremes of cruelty.