“The Fons Americanus is an allegory of the Black Atlantic, and really all global waters which disastrously connect Africa to America, Europe, and economic prosperity,” says the artist in a video about the piece. The sweeping work is inspired by the Queen Victoria Memorial fountain that stands outside Buckingham Palace; but it aims to tell a different, more inclusive version of the violent history of the British Empire and the role that stolen goods from Africa played in funding the monument. With seemingly infinite art, historical, and cultural references, Walker’s sculpture has received overwhelmingly positive praise from critics and visitors alike.

Walker in front of the sculpture in 2019. Photo by Ben Fisher. Image courtesy of the Tate Modern.

While the ethos of Fons Americanus will live on through extensive photo and film documentation, visitors and critic are quick to point out their disappointment with the destruction, as the exhibition closed one month early due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

This isn’t the first of Walker’s ephemeral works. In 2014 she debuted A Subtlety, a 75-foot-tall, sphinx-like sculpture crafted entirely from sugar, displayed in a storage shed of the former Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn. As with Fons Americanus, the work was dismantled just months later, but documented for future generations to discover.