Breathing Court — Nari Ward's 2023 public park basketball court renovation and installation at St. Nicholas Park in Harlem, NY — references Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) flag combined with an African prayer symbol known as a Congolese Cosmogram, representing birth, life, death and rebirth.
Ward explains, “several of these hole patterns are drilled into the floorboards of one of the oldest African-American churches in the United States in Savannah, Georgia. It is believed that the drilled pattern functioned as breathing holes for runaway slaves who, hiding under the floor, awaited safe transport north.” He continues, “the union of that moment and of Garvey’s black nationalist flag acknowledge the resilience of the human spirit to survive even as we continue the need to remind America that Black Lives Matter.”
The 2023 Breathing Court project at St. Nicholas Park, includes a full basketball court repair, resurfacing, and color coating, led by the non-profit, Project Backboard, in partnership with Five-Star Basketball and Common Practice.
Upon completion, Breathing Court was unveiled to the Harlem community with the with the New York premiere of [HOME TEAM] Dance Works, choreographed by Key’Aira Lockett, a community basketball clinic and tournament, along with live music from Jay Mumford.
Nari Ward was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, and lives and works in New York. The Jamaican artist is known for his compositions of neighborhood-found objects that address issues of consumer culture, poverty, and race—from his installation of disposed strollers at New Museum to his transformation of typical outdoor structures, like playgrounds, into playful objects in his newest installation G.O.A.T., again. Ward won this year’s Vilcek Prize, which honors immigrant artists who have made a lasting contribution to U.S. culture through their art.
More about Nari Ward here: https://www.nariwardstudio.com/
