Nari Ward
Peace Keeper
1994-2019
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Nari Ward
Peace Keeper
1994-2019
Physical Qualities
Hearse, pigmented amber petroleum jelly, feathers, mufflers, straps, steel pipes, Dimensions Variable
Credit Line
Art Fund established with exchange funds from gifts of Dr. and Mrs. Edgar F. Berman, Equitable Bank, N.A., Geoffrey Gates, Sandra O. Moose, National Endowment for the Arts, Lawrence Rubin, Philip M. Stern, and Alan J. Zakon
Object Number
2021.226
In the early 1990s, Nari Ward created site-specific installations of found objects like shopping carts, bottles, fire hoses, and tires. Peace Keeper consists of a severed hearse, a vehicle typically reserved for transporting the deceased and an emblem of life’s inevitable endpoint. Ward tarred the immobilized hearse with black grease and peacock feathers, placed it on a bed of tailpipes, and enclosed it in a foreboding cage underneath a cloud of car mufflers. These once-discarded items reflect on human conflict, from anti-Black police brutality in the United States to the United Nations peace-keeping efforts throughout the Bosnian War (1992–1995).
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