A Subtlety

Kara Walker's A Subtlety was a monumental sugar-coated sphinx installed in the cavernous ruins of Brooklyn's former Domino Sugar Refinery in 2014. Standing 35 feet tall, the sculpture bore the features of the Mammy archetype rendered in gleaming white sugar over a polystyrene core, using 80 tonnes of the material. Through this loaded material and setting, Walker drew a direct line between the sugar trade and the history of slavery in America.