Nari Ward initially captured the attention of Walker curators with the magnificent set he created for Geography: Race, the first part of a dance-theater trilogy developed by Ralph Lemon and presented by the Walker in 1997. The set included an elaborate curtain of colored bottles and a backdrop of stacked mattress springs. The effect was suggestive of the spiritual and contemplative themes explored by Lemon and his dancers. Ward also
created the set for Geography: Tree -- part two of the Lemon trilogy staged at the Walker in September 2000 -- with wooden pallets and plexiglass stained with burnt sugar.
An installation artist for more than a decade, Ward uses everyday objects to create evocative architectural environments in which these common materials are transformed into enigmatic artworks suggesting themes of memory, history, and collective experience. He has participated in several artist residencies, including independent curator France Morin's The Quiet in the Land, the first part of which took place in summer 1998 in Maine among the last surviving members of the Shaker community. There, he wove the original bottle curtain that later inspired his set for Lemon's Geography: Race. Ward's work with Lemon and his dancers encouraged him to continue investigating the language of dance in the second half of that residency, which took place in Bahia, Brazil. With the assistance of Projeto Axé, a social services agency that works with street children, he collaborated with young people interested in dance and movement.
In hopes of giving Ward an opportunity to further his artistic practice and collaborate with residents of the Twin Cities, the Walker invited him to be a part of its Artists and Communities at the Crossroads artist-in-residence program. From January through October 2000, he regularly traveled from his home in Harlem to work in various Twin Cities communities.Rites-of-Way, the most recent commissioned work in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, is the result: a visually arresting and conceptually layered piece that unites Twin Cities history, community stories, and the formally elegant environments for which this artist is known.
