Nari Ward
Born:
Kingston, Jamaica, 1963
Lives:
New York City
Work
Nari Ward uses everyday materials in unexpected ways to create sculptural
environments that comment on the world around him. Objects found
in his Harlem neighborhood-baby strollers, cars, cribs, bottles,
fire hoses, industrial materials, discarded Christmas tress-are
all part of his palette. Ward uses the past lives and myriad associations
of these materials to address sociopolitical themes, such as the
economic situation in his neighborhood, government hypocrisy exercised
in the name of peace, or the state of spirituality in contemporary
life. A fusion of topical issues and Ward's exploration of his own
faith, his installations have the power to envelop and move the
viewer. Rites of Passage (2000), in the sculpture park at
the Walker Art Center in Minnesota, is a giant maze of metal scaffolding
that incorporates photographs and objects exploring the history
of individuals and communities in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
In Vertical Hold (1996), Ward addressed the faith of the
Shaker people while confronting his own spirituality based in the
Baptist church. The piece was the result of a project in which Ward
and ten other artists lived for a month in the last surviving Shaker
community in Sabbathday Lake, Maine, and created artworks inspired
by their experience. Vertical Hold's web of found bottles and yarn
suspended from the ceiling relate to the history of African American
yard shows common in the South, where the bottle is a metaphor for
the idea of the spirit. Every day Ward would dig for bottles in
the Shaker community. "Every time I would find one it was a moment
of joy. I tried to correlate that with this idea of faith." ("The
Quiet in the Land: Everyday Life, Contemporary Art, and the Shakers:
A Conversation with Janet Kaplan," art journal, summer 1998.) As
with most of Ward's works, his experience in creating Vertical
Hold was informed by his experiences in the host community,
yet offered an opportunity to him and his viewers to challenge their
deeply held social and spiritual beliefs.
Links
http://www.walkerart.org/programs/va_wardfr.html
|