Nari Ward

Breathing Bars Diagonal Left

Known as “Breathing Panels,” Nari Ward’s series of large-scale abstract compositions take visual cues from African American history in the United States. In Breathing Bars Diagonal Left, several holes puncture the surface and construct a distinct shape known to some as a BaKongo Cosmogram. Holes in the shape of this African prayer symbol appear in the floorboards of the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia.

Their historical purpose was to serve as breathing holes for enslaved people traveling beneath the floorboards of the Savannah church, a stop on the Underground Railroad. Ward embeds this motif onto his creative surface. Brilliant lines of incised copper radiate from the work’s sculptural center. Against a purple-blue patina background, vague impressions of a metal jail cell and the shadows of handcuffs emerge.