Crusader

2006

Nari Ward’s work takes shape from found, and often previously discarded, objects, drawing on Jamaican folk-art traditions of creating new forms from unexpected materials. In this video, the artist navigates the streets of Harlem from within his sculpture, Crusader (2005), also in the Brooklyn Museum collection. Referencing social and material instability, Ward transforms a shopping cart into a chariot, adding a protective sculptural hood to a conveyance often used by unhoused people to safeguard their belongings. The cart is circled by used gas cans, and items such as a spinning globe are painted over with tar extract—speaking to how oil fuels energy, but also global conflict and change.