| 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 | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Kara Walker |
| Year | 2014 |
| Medium | Sugar, polystyrene, plastic, molasses |
| Location | New York City |
A Subtlety (also known as the Marvelous Sugar Baby and subtitled "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") is a 2014 piece of installation art by American artist Kara Walker. A Subtlety was dominated by its central piece, a white sculpture depicting a woman with African features in the shape of a sphinx, but also included fifteen other sculptures. These fifteen "attendants" to the sphinx were enlarged versions of contemporary blackamoors produced in China.
The piece was installed in the Domino Sugar Factory in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn from May through June of 2014. Although thematically consistent with Walker's earlier work, its scope and presentation were departures from her oeuvre.
The project was commissioned by Creative Time and underwritten by New York-based real estate development company Two Trees, and was built with donated materials. The exhibition sparked conversations about the show's audience, the gentrification of Brooklyn, and the work's themes of oppression, labor, and the ephemeral.