Singing in my Chains

By Cadi

Glory Glory by Laura Ford.

I went to have a look at the new gallery in the National Museum of Wales today. We've been very lucky in that the past two Director Generals have been visionaries who have regenerated the museum. Both of whom come from outside Wales. (The same is true of the Liverpudlian Director of the National Theatre of Wales) One small quibble: their website makes little mention of the new gallery (not that I can find, anyway) and they don't yet have postcards on sale of the new work.
The new gallery focuses on contemporary art with the emphasis on Welsh artists or those who connected with Wales in their work. To my surprise, some of the pieces were funny and irreverent. My favourite was a video installation which was shot in the artist's home with his family as cast, all dressed in battle fatigues. There are a series of vignettes designed to make you think about conceptions of territory and national identity. One of them has the artist miming to Dylan's Eve of Destruction into a sunflower out in his back garden, looked on by a bemused cat, with the artist breaking into occasional bad karate moves. It's the silliest thing I've ever seen and I loved it.
Anyway, you're not supposed to take photos in that particular gallery because of copyright law so I had to wait until the curators were out of sight so I could snap this unsettling piece by Laura Ford. This is something she showed at the Venice Biennale when representing Wales.

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