The landmark Domino Sugar Factory is set to be demolished to make way for waterfront condominiums but right now it houses a very beautiful and moving exhibit of Kara Walker's artwork. Creative Time, a non-profit arts organization, commissioned the artist to memorialize the complex history the Refinery represents before the historic site disappears. Domino's refinery in Williamsburg was at one point the largest refinery in the world and the site of one of New York's longest labor strikes.
The history of the industrial urban workers processing and refining sugar is the backdrop to Walker's work, which speaks directly of the cultivation and manufacture of sugar in the tropical areas of the Americas. Beginning in the early 16th Century, the sugar trade and the slave trade grew parallel, as sugar or "white gold" as British colonists called it, became a highly valuable commodity.
Over 80 tons of sugar was donated by Domino to help build the sugar sculptures, or "subtleties," that comprise the exhibit. There are fifteen processional figurines, black child laborers, which lead up to the centerpiece: a 4-story high sphynx that references both "Mammy" and "Jezebel" stereotypes.
The exhibit is awe-inspiring. As a volunteer for Creative Time I had the chance to visit several times; and every time I was struck by the overwhelmingly beautiful and brutal imagery on display. The sugar making up the figurines has been melting under the hot and humid New York City sun, giving the children the appearance of sweating, crying, or bleeding as they work. Some sculptures have even fallen apart, as if amputated by on the job labor. While the sphynx brings up the issue of the physical and sexual exploitation of women during slavery and the rise and fall of empires.
Here's a short video I made during my last visit to the exhibit:
