Slow Motion, an exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture (GFS) guest curated by Patricia Eunji Kim for Monument Lab, is entering its final weeks and will close on September 1, 2025. The exhibition, which is currently on view in and around the sculpture park’s Domestic Arts Building, expands the boundaries of contemporary sculpture using unconventional materials and processes. Founded in 2012, Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia, which cultivates and facilitates critical conversations around the past, present, and future of monuments. Traditional approaches to monument-making emphasize durability, solidity, and myths of enduring permanence; however, Slow Motion embraces the pleasures and possibilities of material transience.
“At GFS, we believe that exhibitions can become a catalyst for transformation across the organization, while reflecting our commitment to present the works of contemporary sculptors who reflect the greater world, challenge perceptions, and inspire,” said Gary Garrido Schneider, Executive Director of Grounds For Sculpture. “Collaborating with a guest curator and project partner such as Monument Lab has allowed us to infuse new perspectives and has supported innovative approaches to curating, while presenting new voices and ideas.”
Slow Motion was organized by Monument Lab, with five artists selected to participate and respond to the exhibition’s central question, “how do we remake our relationship with monuments?” The artists were chosen based on several key criteria: use of unconventional materials; ability to embrace playfulness in their creative practice; and the incorporation of accessibility, inclusivity, and equity lenses in their work. The featured artists are Billy Dufala, Ana Teresa Fernández, Colette Fu, Omar Tate, and Sandy Williams IV. Each artist’s work underscores how materials are not just a medium for monumental work; materials carry meanings themselves, functioning as symbols of specific places, memories, scents, and feelings.
“It’s been a pleasure to work with and learn from these five artists, whose interdisciplinary practices have long experimented with the materialities and temporalities of public memory. Their boundary-pushing artworks for this exhibition have inspired visitors to re-orient themselves in how they relate to monuments, to collective memories, and ultimately, to each other,” shared Patricia Eunji Kim, Monument Lab’s Curator of Slow Motion.
