Episodes: Bus Park & Forevermore

Artist Nari Ward uses commonplace objects to create evocative, materially dense environments in which everyday materials are transformed into imaginary landscapes, resonating with the themes of memory, faith, history and the collective experience. While in residency at the Gardner Museum, Ward became very interested in the sense community at the Museum and in the behind-the-scenes activities of the Conservation and Education departments, two of the pivotal cornerstones of the Museum. Episodes: Bus Park & Forevermore, is a two part exhibition. Forevermore can be seen in the Special Exhibition Gallery while Bus Park is located outdoors in the garden.

Episodes is comprised of two site-specific installations. Each suggests a different "episode" in the artist's response to the Museum collection and to Isabella Stewart Gardner's unusual requirement that the Museum galleries should be preserved exactly as she had arranged them "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever." Ward takes us on a metaphorical behind-the-scenes tour focusing on the objects as well as on the people who are the custodians of this unique and challenging enterprise.

In a career spanning over three decades, artist Nari Ward (b. 1963, St. Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in New York, NY) has gained recognition for an interdisciplinary and multimedia practice that engages historical and contemporary discourse around race, migration, democracy, identity, and community. Ward is best known for his wall and installation-based sculptural works created primarily from materials found and collected throughout Harlem, his longtime neighborhood in New York. These objects imbue his work with a sense of intimacy, reflecting the shared experience of community. Combining materials to re-contextualize their original meanings, Ward’s assemblages probe a range of spiritual and conceptual issues through literal and metaphorical juxtaposition.

Materially specific but conceptually ambiguous, Ward’s multimedia and performance works unfold into many possible interpretations—as materials and movements accumulate, so too do signifiers. Each found object—including baseball bats, strollers, shoelaces, cash registers, bottles, and shopping carts—contains a multiplicity of meanings and histories that speak to both collective experience and individual memory. The intentional synthesis of such objects, combined with the more traditional disciplines of painting, sculpture, and performance, allows for varied interpretations, inviting viewers to project their own associations and transcend the specific context of any given work. At the same time, Ward’s art reflects on the complexities of contemporary society, transforming overlooked material through artmaking to foreground forgotten histories or marginalized communities.

About the Artist