Race, Power and Public Art at the Domino Sugar Factory: Kara Walker

Kara Walker

http://creativetime.org/projects/karawalker/

http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2014/05/20/kara-walker

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The Subtleties of Kara Walker’s Domino Sugar Sculpture

http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/2014/06/subtleties-kara-walkers-domino-sugar-sculpture/

Built in 1865 by the Havemeyer family, the Domino Sugar Factory on Brooklyn’s Williamsburg waterfront was once the largest sugar refinery in the world. But the factory has been shuttered for the past decade and many of the buildings on the abandoned site are being demolished to make way for a $1.5 billion mixed-use development.

The work is formally titled “A Subtlety,” after the sugar sculptures that decorated royal banquets of the Medieval era, when sugar was a luxury commodity. The installation is situated in the refinery’s massive storage shed and consists of a 75-foot long sculpture constructed from 35 tons of sugar.  The massive white figure is shaped like a sphinx and is surrounded by a series of small candy boy sculptures.