Here on Untrustworthy Ground, Wilmer Wilson IV continues his interrogation of the perceived value of materials, locations, gestures, and bodies. The artist’s recent castings respond specifically to the escalating public conversations around monuments, and the debate over their removal from public view. To Wilson, the question of visibility or invisibility surrounding monuments is an inadequate solution to the problem of their legacy. Instead, the artist sees an opportunity for meaningful action in the transformative moment at which molten bronze begins to take on new form.

The work in Untrustworthy Ground memorializes pedestrian messages left in wet cement, where marks and deep impressions serve as found molds for Wilson IV’s bronze sculptures. Though stepped over and on hundreds or thousands of times each day and left to fade as the infrastructure ages with wear, these improvisational scrawlings represent an invisible collective who, through unsanctioned intervention into public space, have created an audience of readers.