Analemma

Ward studied at Winchester School of Art, where he became influenced by Constructivism and abstract painting of the Modernist period. Living in New York in the late 1970s, he absorbed the work of performance artists including Meredith Monk and Merce Cunningham. Back in London he began to make his own live work and is now recognised for both his installations and his performance pieces.

Analemma comprises a group of stainless-steel discs mapped out on a wall in a figure of eight. The title comes from the Latin term for sundial, suggesting associations with the movement of time and also of light.

Pier Arts Centre on Orkney holds an important collection of British abstract art, with fine examples of work by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Patrick Heron. Analemma joins the centre’s growing holdings of contemporary art, including work by Olafur Eliasson, Eva Rothschild and Sean Scully.