Nari Ward
Peace Keeper
1995/2020
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Nari Ward
Peace Keeper
1995/2020
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).
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2022
Klaus Ketess, Whitney Museum of American Art, "1995 Biennial Exhibition," March 23, 1995 to June 4, 1995.
Okwui Enwezor, with curatorial support from advisors Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and Mark Nash, New Museum, "Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America," February 17, 2021 to June 6, 2021.
Jessica Bell Brown, Cecilia Wichmann, and Leila Grothe, with Antoinette Roberts, Oscar Flores-Montero, Dylan Kaleikaumaka Hill, and Maura Callahan, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Crosscurrents: Works from the Contemporary Collection," February 26, 2025 to September 3, 2025.
Okwui Enwezor, with curatorial support from advisors Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and Mark Nash, New Museum, "Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America," February 17, 2021 to June 6, 2021.
Jessica Bell Brown, Cecilia Wichmann, and Leila Grothe, with Antoinette Roberts, Oscar Flores-Montero, Dylan Kaleikaumaka Hill, and Maura Callahan, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Crosscurrents: Works from the Contemporary Collection," February 26, 2025 to September 3, 2025.
Enwezor, Okwui, Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, Mark Nash, eds. Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America. New Museum, 2021.
On View: Contemporary Wing Second Floor, Gallery 07
