Client: Grounds for Sculpture

Overview

Memorial Stairs showcase Sandy’s Wax Monuments, a series of sculptures that depict famous monuments as miniature wax candles. Americans’ views of figures on pedestals occupying public space is troubled. Monuments are concrete objects that bring history to life, often considered to be untouchable or permanent. Chiseled into stone, or mixed into molten bronze is the intent to shape public perception and collective memory. What becomes contentious is whose collective memory is prioritized and whose stories are forgotten.

Goals

By creating small figures that can be melted down, Williams gives the public agency to engage with the monuments and meditate on the ideals they represent. Melting the figures results in a symbolic gesture that Williams sees as not an erasure of history, but an opportunity for transformation.

Process

Williams takes 3D scans of public monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty, and shrinks them down into wax forms that are small enough to be held.

Additional Information

Slow Motion will be on display at Grounds for Sculpture till September 1, 2025.