A 35-Foot-Tall Sugar Sculpture of a Sphinx-Woman at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn

photo by Jason Wyche/Creative Time

“A Subtlety” is a 35-foot tall sugar sculpture of a female figure in a sphinx-like pose that is currently on display in the soon-to-be demolished Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn. Artist Kara Walker created the sculpture as a commentary on the connection between the sugar trade and the slave trade, or as she put it in the full title of the installation: “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant.” The sphinx is made of an estimated 40 tons of sugar and is displayed alongside 15 “candy boy” sculptures, some of which were crafted out of molasses (and are melting in the summer heat). “A Subtlety” is open through July 6, 2014.

photo by Jason Wyche/Creative Time

photo via Creative Time