Set against the city’s unprecedented moment under federal occupation — when policing in Washington, DC is placing exceptional demands on the city government, residents, police officers, and the National Guard — 100% Pure Peace delivers its metaphor with striking poignancy.

The video depicts a toy soldier submerged in a mason jar as Amish honey is slowly poured in. As the golden liquid envelopes the figure, it overflows the jar and fills the frame, ultimately drowning out the soldier and the container itself. The work employs two contrasting symbols—the mass-produced toy soldier and the organic Amish honey—exploring the tensions between violence and pacifism, war and peace, and confrontation and surrender.

“As Washington, DC navigates the realities of federal control, Steven Ferri’s 100% Pure Peace reflects on the contradictions of power, pacification, and transformation. As a leading DC based artist-centered organization, Transformer is committed to amplifying emerging artists whose work sparks dialogue and challenges assumptions. 100% Pure Peace embodies that mission — inviting reflection on how power is exercised and the forces shaping our lives in real time.”
 – Victoria Reis, Transformer’s Founder, Executive & Artistic Director

By using honey—an element that preserves as much as it smothers—the piece explores the complexity of how societies negotiate survival and morality. The image of a toy soldier submerged in sweetness suggests that even ideals of peace can obscure, overwhelm, or silence. Yet, it also gestures toward the possibility of transformation, of violence being preserved in history rather than enacted in the present.