Emerging in the early 1990s as part of a generation of artists exploring the intersections of art, identity formation, and political representation, Nari Ward (Born 1963 in Saint Andrew, Jamaica) engages the symbolic potential of found objects. The artist draws on many references, ranging from folklore to West African and Western avant-garde sculptural legacies. Using labor-intensive processes, Ward imbues his work with layered meanings connected to cultural expression, history, and black experience, particularly of his native Jamaica and his adopted home of Harlem, New York, while also addressing issues related to immigration.
Savior resembles a regal version of a cart used often by homeless or itinerant people to collect recyclables or store their belongings. The sculpture is dense with material—its surface a web of twisted plastic and fabric and its interior filled with colored plastic bags holding empty bottles and other refuse. In his associated performance, documented in the video Pushing Savior, Ward pushed the cart through the streets of Harlem. In these two works, the artist brings attention the city’s marginalized homeless population, questioning the visibility and invisibility of the disenfranchised in the public sphere. He began the sculpture during a residency at a Shaker community in Maine, where a resident building a chair explained to Ward that he constructs each piece of furniture for an angel to sit on. The chair at the very top of Savior references this exchange. Ward, however, remains skeptical of organized religions and thinks reliance on otherworldly entities strips one of agency. The sculpture conveys the vision and desire to push to reach one’s destiny.
