How do you pull somebody out of a particular rhythm, so that they can stand aside to it and have a completely different kind of experience than what they know? I am not changing anything but I am trying to change the viewer's position on something they already know and in doing that, that thing they do already know is gonna be new and echo other kind of reactions... [Nari Ward]
Questo è Nari Ward, un artista che attraverso il suo lavoro traccia un ritratto ironico, intimo e sfaccettato della società contemporanea:
for me is this idea of really thinking about a poetic approach, finding something I am really passionate about, and feel a deep connection with and then thinking about a material that can help to both echo it but also challenge it. [Nari Ward]
Questa conversazione è stata registrata in occasione della sua mostra Iris Hope Keeper alla Galleria Continua di San Gimignano. Come spesso accade con Nari Ward, la mostra affonda le sue radici nelle storie, nelle memorie personali dell’artista e dalla sua famiglia, nel legame indissolubile con la sua terra di origine, la Jamaica, per poi abbracciare contesti e prospettive più ampi, per rivolgersi a comunità allargare, per esplorarne la percezione di identità e appartenenza.
Nari Ward, BEYOND, mongolfiera, metallo, bottiglie vetro, corde, carta, 2013, ph. Ela Bialkowska, courtesy Galleria Continua
So [my work] is about taking the things that I am questioning and then try to figure out how to make them visually dynamic and engaging for somebody who want to take time to bring their own experience to it and leave it open enough for that experience to grow into something else. I think that that idea of having the work to become a kind of open vessel for meaning to revolve - my meaning, their meaning... - in a discourse, that's really important, that's what i really try to have the work do. [Nari Ward]
Nari Ward, Wishing Arena, cestini di plastica, legno, lumini, lattine, 2013, ph. Ela Bialkowska, courtesy Galleria Continua