CRUSADER

On a cold winter morning in early 2005, dressed in dark, insulated coveralls and an aviator hat, Nari Ward settles himself into the restricted space of the Crusader and (assisted by cameraman Zack Fabri) pulls out onto Fredrick Douglass Avenue from his studio on 141st Street and purposefully shuffles through the city traffic up to 145th Street. He makes a right and shuffles down to the Mobile gas station, where, as seems entirely appropriate, he turns in and pulls up to one of the available gas pumps. Here, with baby oil, Ward performs a brief ritual of hand washing/hand wringing: a sort of libation or tribute. He kneels in front of the Crusader and spins its hood-ornament globe several times, as though to activate its latent geopolitical powers. Then, fully charged, he returns to the little driver's compartment from which he pushes the vehicle back to his studio. The whole...