The ongoing exhibit “We the People” at The Fabric Workshop and Museum highlights some of artist Nari Ward’s more recent sculptural and installation work. In this show, Ward examines the ideas of citizenship, discrimination, materialism and poverty through three-dimensional media. Ultimately, the ideas expressed in these works reflect his experiences and observations growing up in Jamaica until his present-day life as an artist in Harlem.

Much of the material Ward uses is from his urban surroundings in New York City and the discarded by-products of consumer society. One such piece, entitled “Glory,” is a tanning bed constructed out of oil barrels. Inside the bed, the tanning elements appropriate the universally recognizable stars and stripes of the American flag. The implications here are multifaceted and bring to mind not only a United States with an unhealthy addiction to foreign oil, but also other unhealthy American obsessions and vices, like tanning. In theory, getting inside this tanning bed would leave the pattern of the flag on the person inside as a wry critique of shameless displays of patriotism. This physical representation of American pride demonstrates the lengths people go to in order to achieve the “American Dream” and draws a parallel with how outward appearances become status symbols.

Ward also debuts his installation of the same name, “We the People,” in this show. It consists of dyed shoelaces dangling in the form of the opening text from the United States Constitution. The words are of course instantly recognizable and yet the material makes viewers think twice. Hand-dyed shoelaces bring to mind the ideas of domestic labor and the outsourcing of production jobs around the globe. As Americans, “We the People” consume items produced abroad, while within our borders economic trouble is clearly afoot (pun intended).

This First Friday, Nov. 4, Ward will also be hosting an artist talk at the Fabric Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. It would definitely be enlightening to hear more from the artist himself about his installations, process and his analysis of American culture. Also be sure to check out the debut of his self-titled “We the People” up close and personal before the show ends on Nov. 19.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is located at 1214 Arch St.; 215.561.8888.