Nari Ward: Iris Hope Keeper

Galleria Continua hosts Iris Hope Keeper, a new solo show by Nari Ward. The exhibition features a large number of new works arising from the artist’s most recent researches. Sculptures and installations conceived specially for the gallery’s exhibition spaces weave fresh narrative strands and create a dialogue between viewer and object, staging a kind of choreography of shifting memories and of the present that is a reflection of it.

Iris Hope Keeper is grounded in very personal stories, memories and imaginative elements – aspects of Ward’s family history and of an unbroken relationship with his land of origin, Jamaica – but then connects to the contexts and perspectives of a much broader community, also exploring the notions of the sense of belonging and of identity. Ward builds up an intimate, ironic, profound and multifaceted portrait of Jamaica. On the one hand there is the stereotypical view of those who experience the dream of a Caribbean holiday, on the other the reality of a complex country with lots of energy but also many contradictions.

Ward’s work reaches beyond any possible single reading, moving towards reflections that go beyond appearances, as confirmed by the title of the show.