Is democracy melting? With an ice sculpture, these artists think so

As the government shutdown enters its third week with no clear end in sight, a 3,000-pound ice sculpture was unveiled on the National Mall, spelling out the word “democracy.”

Glinting in the midday sun, it started melting almost immediately. 

Measuring in at 5 feet tall and 17 feet wide, the sculpture sat at Third Street NW on Wednesday, with the Capitol Dome rising behind it.  

“I was born in D.C. … Both of my parents were federal workers. Many of my friends’ parents growing up here were also federal workers,” said artist Marshall Reese, who created the sculpture alongside fellow artist Nora Ligorano. “They worked hard, they raised families and they were driven by ideals to make Americans’ lives and the lives of people around the world better.” 

A few blocks away, lawmakers on the Hill were locked in a partisan stalemate over how to reopen the government. But the pace near the sculpture was both faster and slower, as drops of water trickled off. 

“We see art as a catalyst, and it provides a different way of understanding the world around us,” Ligorano said. 

Titled “Last Call – DemocracyICED,” the sculpture is part of a national campaign led by Ben & Jerry’s ice cream co-founder Ben Cohen called Up in Arms, which calls for less military spending and more money for social programs. Organizers planned to have it sit out all day until it melted. 

Ligorano and Reese have been creating ice sculptures since 2006 for public art projects. Their work has appeared in 11 different cities in the U.S., including around the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in 2018. 

A group of local writers assembled on Wednesday to read excerpts every half-hour from historian Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American,” beginning with her entry from Oct. 1, the day the shutdown began.

As the ice sculpture began to melt and drain into jugs behind it, people walking by stopped to look. The melting might take 10 or 12 hours, organizers predicted.

“Art speaks a universal language. So whether it’s music or sculpture, it’s speaking a language. And as we can see, people are curious,” said Nina Turner, a former state senator from Ohio who got involved with Up in Arms. “Hopefully, if you draw them in, they will have a question about what this is all about.” 

Several unrelated political art installations have popped up on the National Mall this year: a giant “thumbs up” crushing the Statue of Liberty in June and a statue of President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands last month, among others. 

Ligorano compared the current moment in politics to the start of the Iraq War.

“Nearly 20 years later, our democracy is so much further weakened than it was then, with the continued expansion of executive power, the militarization of our streets, attacks on the rule of law and weakening of our voter rights, [and] the dismantling of public health and scientific research,” she said.