From the edition of 20. Accompanied by a certificate signed and numbered by the artist. Published by Paragon Press, London.

Created in 2014, Britain is Best developed from Grayson Perry’s encounters with East Belfast loyalists while filming Who Are You? Taking the form of a processional banner, the work examines how communal identity is expressed through shared imagery and public ceremony. Its celebratory appearance introduces a portrait in which affection, humour and political observation remain closely intertwined.

Five men ride together on a single horse, carrying a worn Union Jack against a vivid sunset. Belfast’s shipbuilding heritage appears through cranes and the Titanic in the distance. These recognisable symbols are rendered in an exuberant pictorial language, while embroidery, beads and sequins give the surface a tactile richness. The care invested in its manufacture lends material dignity to an image that also invites an amused response.

Perry deliberately adopted a cheerful palette in response to the more sombre and confrontational murals he encountered in East Belfast. Produced in collaboration with Factum Arte, the hand-embroidered work translates his design into a medium associated with collective display and painstaking craft. This combination allows the banner to participate in the visual traditions it examines, rather than remaining an external commentary upon them.

The emphatic title presents national pride as a public declaration, while the crowded horse and nostalgic setting complicate its certainty. The work can be read as a reflection on the emotional investment through which inherited symbols acquire authority. Perry’s portrait acknowledges the strength of belonging while questioning the idealised histories that sustain it, giving the banner a significance that extends beyond its particular Belfast subjects.