40 ACRES: Camp Barker
by Sandy Williams IV
Garrison Elementary, 1200 S St NW
February 15 - August 20, 2024
Opening Celebration February 15, 2024 at Garrison Elementary, 3:30-5 PM
Commissioned by CulturalDC and supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities through the Public Art Building Communities Grant, Sandy Williams IV will create a 6ft wax replica of the Lincoln Memorial. The installation is a direct commentary on DC’s history of Civil War-era Contraband Camps, refugee camps that housed formerly enslaved and free African Americans. Camp Barker was positioned where Garrison Elementary now stands.
This will be the third public installation of Williams’ 40 ACRES Archive: The Wax Monument series. In this series, Williams creates wax replicas in the image of popular public monuments and cultural symbols such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart, and Thomas Jefferson. This archive is a multidisciplinary project centering on an investigation into the history of the Reconstruction era, which historians often refer to as the second founding of America. They’re malleable, participatory, and public by nature, and the presence of wicks gives viewers the opportunity to transform these candles with a small flame and time.
The Fall IV (Lincoln) [2022]
Sandy Williams IV’s Garrison Elementary Greet the Week interview with Grayson Maiselman
Opening Celebration
February 15, 2024
Photos by @lipheofjai
40 ACRES: Camp Barker by Sandy Williams IV still remains in place at Garrison Elementary here in Washington, DC.
Photo credit: Johnny Fogg
After consulting with the principal of the school and other key members of the community, we have decided to remove the work a week ahead of its original removal date of September 30th, before school returns to session on August 26th.
After discussions with the artist, we are no longer confident that repairs to the sculpture can be made that would allow it to remain structurally intact, especially if the high temperatures continue through the summer.
The extra media attention has attracted an influx of both local and international visitors who are coming to interact with the piece, take selfies, and even light it to memorialize Abraham Lincoln as well as to honor the history of Camp Barker.
We have received offers from private collectors and larger galleries to purchase the piece. While we are exploring all options, we have not yet made a concrete decision on where the piece will go after it's removed.
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Viral image originally posted by Kirk A. Bado
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Featured Multiple times on @washingtonprobs
And many more across the Globe, including China, Germany, India, South Korea, Iran, and Belgium.
About Camp Barker
Camp Barker, a former federally funded contraband camp, was located where Garrison Elementary now stands. It served as a refuge for escaped and freed slaves during the Civil War. Contraband camps played an important role in the transition to freedom during the Civil War. While camp conditions were often undesirable, the camp was a symbol of hope and resilience, where individuals could rebuild their lives and find a sense of community. The camps provided a safe haven and an opportunity for freedom for those seeking to escape slavery.
Contraband Camps were established to provide shelter and support for escaped slaves who sought refuge behind Union lines. These camps offered education, medical care, and employment opportunities to the newly freed individuals. They became centers of empowerment, where people could reclaim their identities and envision a brighter future.
Oral histories collected by President Abraham Lincoln’s biographer, John E. Washington, record that President Lincoln frequently encountered Camp Barker during his presidency. He would often stop by the camp to visit with the refugees during his daily Summer commute from his home adjacent to the Soldier’s Home Northeast DC, now known as “Lincoln’s Cottage.”
Black Lincoln
Limited edition exclusive to CulturalDC.
This is a black beeswax candle with wicks created in exact replica of the Lincoln Memorial.
This is a made to order item within a limited run. This item will ship or be available for pick up between 4-6 weeks from the initial order.
Dimensions: 5.5 x 5.5 x 6 inches
Sandy Williams IV
“Traditionally, monuments are made to sit and collect a patina, as they withstand change, in an attempt to eternalize a particular reality, I am interested in visualizing change, and building monuments able to keep a living record of activity. By melting these wax versions of famous monuments, people are given agency over these forms that are normally (legally) untouchable.”
- Sandy Williams IV
Sandy Williams IV (they/them) is an artist and educator whose work generates moments of communal catharsis. Their conceptual practice uses time itself as a material and aims to unfold the hidden legacies of public spaces. Through ephemeral, malleable, and collaborative public memorials, Williams’ work unsettles popular colonial logics of permanence, uniformity, and displacement. This work creates participatory paths for communal engagement informed by targeted research and site-specificity: holding space for disenfranchised public memories and visualizing frameworks of emancipation and shared agency.
While aesthetically Williams’ work flirts with minimalism, the practice is deeply interdisciplinary, and carefully layers contextual research, communal activity, collaboration, civic action, and performance. Their projects expand beyond the limits of the gallery toward public space: places of education and worship, fashion, virtual portals, and even upward to the sky. Williams’ work is guided by generations of freedom fighters who have dared to unsettle global colonial practices and the visible and invisible structures that sustain them.
Recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Artist Fellowship, the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship. Solo shows at 1708 Gallery (Richmond), the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (Ontario), Reynolds Gallery (Richmond), and Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville). Selected Group Exhibitions and Performances: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, The Arlington Museum of Contemporary Art, The Harnett Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU, Socrates Sculpture Park (NYC), New Release (NYC), de boer Gallery (LA), Springsteen (Baltimore), NADA House (NYC). Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (FL), SOMA (CDMX), ACRE (Chicago), Mildred’s Lane (NY) and the University of Cumbria (UK).
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Illustrations by @addiethenomad