
Grounds For Sculpture is a NJ gem unlike any other. You can spend hours strolling through the 42-acre park and gardens, admiring the sculptures and statues at your own pace in an idyllic outdoor space. GFS’s latest exhibit is all about slowing down and taking your time to look at the elements of the “Slow Motion” project.
The exhibit is curated by Monument Lab, which was founded in 2012 in Philadelphia as a nonprofit public art and history studio. Participating artists had to respond to the question: How do we remake our relationship with monuments? The idea is that monuments are full of life and rich in history, and when they’re placed in public spaces they give us time to pause, think and breathe.
The artists were chosen based on their use of unconventional materials (like wax, paper and aluminum); their ability to be playful; and the incorporation of accessibility, inclusivity and equity. Most of the sculptures were designed during the pandemic when grief and loss were paramount, and we all needed to find ways of healing and addressing justice in society.
During a press preview of the exhibit, we got a sneak peek of these impressive and incredibly thoughtful pieces located inside the Domestic Arts Building, and the outlaying lawns (you can look around for peacocks, too). The artists were on-site, explaining the inspiration behind each sculpture.
When you first walk into the building, you’ll see what looks like the steps of the Lincoln Memorial adorned with mini wax statues. You’re partly right. “The Wax Monuments” by Sandy Williams IV is intended to showcase these public monuments in mini form. Williams said this was in response to the conversation during the pandemic about taking down statues throughout the country. Public spaces should be free spaces, and monuments should be “touchable” so that there is power in the community without erasing history. It also reflects the ideals of our nation vs. the reality that never lives up to those ideals.
The outlying stairs represent how stairs are typically part of public protests, and then there are red, white, blue, beige and gray miniatures of Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, Stonewall Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., among others.
Using wax shows monuments are temporary and not permanent, Williams said, noting that there will be lighting ceremonies throughout the course of the exhibit when you can see the wax lit. The artist, a sculptor by trade, said wax molds are used to cast bronze statues, so they wanted to reverse the process and show the initial wax process.

Looking directly past the American monuments, Colette Fu has a tabletop piece called “Noodle Mountain.” She said she wanted to create a giant pop-up book of spaghetti, but changed the idea to noodles since noodles are universal across cultures – and since her father, born in northeast China, would make his own noodles (she pays homage to that with a crank to open the pop-up book). She loved the song “On Top of Spaghetti” when she was younger, so her artwork is a play off the album cover.
Fu said people frequently ask where she is from, and not being satisfied with the answers of Philly or North Brunswick or Princeton, she realizes they are referring to her parents’ ancestry of China. During the pandemic, she was inspired to study the history of Chinese migration to the U.S. in response to the hate and bias against Asians.
Her sculpture includes cultural elements such as an iconic plate most Chinese Americans own; an automatic sound machine, which in the 19th century was used to replace Chinese labor; roller coaster tracks to reflect her time growing up at the Jersey Shore; a braid, known as a cue in China, which is significant to Chinese laborers (in China your cue represented your loyalty to the country, while in America laborers were required to cut them off); a play off a famous political cartoon of San Francisco’s Angel Island, which was the West Coast’s equivalent of Ellis Island; and the color red, which she said can reflect noodle sauce, blood, or the fires used to burn Chinatown in the 1800s.
To make the exhibit more playful, she included some noodle props on the ceiling above the sculpture, and giant bean bag chairs made in the shape of soy sauce containers that you can sit or lie on.
The pop-up book will be kept open during the day, but at certain times a staff member will close and crank it open to give you the full effect.
After you view some of the “Slow Motion” display exhibits, such as a table topped with colored pencils, a bright brown couch and a display of the materials used throughout the pieces, stop by the front corner of the event space before exiting the building. Here, you will see a tree reaching to the ceiling that is covered with tattered t-shirts, blue bottles and gourds.
Omar Tate used food as his material to represent Hoodooism, a form of spirituality practiced by enslaved African Americans which is still important in Black culture. He said he was inspired by Rat’s Restaurant at Grounds For Sculpture, and how there are blue water goblets and other blue decor. He explained how blue bottle trees represent the water line between life and spirit, and although they look ornamental, they actually offer protection to Africans, especially in the South.
Tate also references how the word “blue” can represent your emotions, like having the blues; how the color hank blue is supposed to protect you from evil spirits; and how Blues music takes on despair and violence through song.
He said his piece “Blue” addresses capitalism, racism and thus colonialism. It includes a poem on the wall that Tate wrote himself that says: “cain’t see ghosts in blue / they don’t wade in da wata / the devil cain’t swim.”
It also has a true life element, with several potted plants circling the base of the tree, because plants and food are medicinal in Hoodooism. There is an altar that calls our ancestors to converse with the spirits – plus a bottle of Hennessy at the base to be used as an offering – in addition to thyme, rosemary, lavender, Russian sage, indigo, blueberry and amaranth. The herbs will rotate throughout the entirety of the exhibit, and will be used in some of the dishes at Rat’s or turned into tinctures.
If you walk out of the building and head left, you’ll see a gigantic pile of … trash. Quite literally, there is a cube made of 42,000 pounds of aluminum scrap metal and other recyclable materials. Billy Dufala’s “Future Futures” is based on his 10 years as the co-founder of Recycled Artists in Residence (RAIR) at a recycling and demolition facility in Philly. He said 550 tons of material would come in daily, providing an easy resource for his monument. What makes this stand out, also, is the fact that the garbage used in the structure was removed from an industrial waste stream by human hands, he said.
Describing the piece, Dufala said there are textural elements that command attention. There are conduits, zip ties, a caution sign, a license plate, and even a hubcap amongst other metal objects.
Aluminum is a raw commodity, he explained, but it’s also beautiful when you see it recycled, especially as you follow the material from where it is now back to its production and consumption. He also said that plastic is “so now,” but aluminum represents the dawn of modernity.
Dufala said once the exhibit ends he will break down the monument to sell the materials on the commodities market – another element of recycling, and another way to show that monuments are impermanent, plus it will turn the project into a micro-endowment.
The final piece is found if you turn to the right and walk past the entrance of the building. You’ll see this beautiful structure from a mile away – since there are hundreds of gold mirrors shining in the shapes of 7-foot-high letters “S-H-H-H.” Artist Ana Teresa Fernández said she loves linguistics – she herself speaks five languages – and she wanted to show that art is one of the most expansive forms of transcending language.
She warned that climate change causes the loss of infrastructure, and that 7,000 languages will be lost by the end of the century because as sea levels rise and the coastlines change, people move inland and cultures combine. She said that language is the vessel of people’s history as we move into the future. She said she grew up in the rotundas of Mexico where monuments preserved acts of war, so she wanted a way to preserve language to communicate to people about the idea of loss.
Fernández chose the word “Shhh” because of its onomatopoeia, and sounds transcend all languages. As the wind blew, she said the piece was “speaking” to the visitors, since the clanking of the 1,800 golden acrylic mirrors created a beautiful sound. She said this makes the piece feel alive. She also noted that “shhh” can be soothing, as in a mother calming her baby, or a more forceful directive to quiet down and pay attention.
Plus, the reflections of everyone standing in front danced around and created literal and figurative reflections. Fernández said a mirror is a solid form of water, so the artwork takes the shape of whatever is in front of it. She wants you to look, listen, see yourself, and see others while you reflect.
“Slow Motion” is a thought-provoking learning opportunity for anyone interested in social, political and cultural issues; bring your kids, too, because they marvel at all the structures. There are storyboards next to each project so you can learn more about the project and the artist, and there is the Peacock Cafe inside the Domestic Arts Building for when you need a snack or bathroom break.
Grounds For Sculpture is located at 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton Twp. The exhibit with Monument Lab will be located inside and outside the Domestic Arts Building from May 5, 2024, through September 1, 2025. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm every day except Tuesdays, when the grounds are closed. You can view “Slow Motion” during normal operating hours.
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