Power Wall - Power People (2019), the work from which this exhibition takes its title, features a clenched fist, the universal symbol of solidarity. In this work, Ward provides an alternate consideration of power and its aesthetic and cultural manifestations. Rendering the symbol with shoelaces not only disturbs and destabilizes the traditional iconography, but also hints more broadly at the human tendency to strive for power and authority.
Sole Revel (2020), pictured above, is the most recent work from Ward’s signature shoelace series. By enlarging the imagery of footsteps, the artist evokes an anonymous presence, eliciting ideas of bodily gesture, mass movement, and migration. The title, Sole Revel, offers a joyful lens through which to view the work as a hopeful emblem of the power in uniting in solidarity.
Knot Endings (2010), also pictured above, is an early example of Ward’s series of shoelace installations that investigate how art making and activism can overlap. By placing everyday materials, such as shoelaces, in an alternative context, Ward’s work examines issues related to race, poverty, and consumer culture.
