Washington: While former US Abraham Lincoln was known for his efforts to stop the American Civil War, it seems the sweltering temperatures in the United States currently have proved too much for his 6-foot wax statue in Washington, which melted due to soaring temperatures in the national capital. The head melted off first, then one of his legs dripped off its torso and a foot turned into a puddle, while the chair sank into the ground, BBC reported.
The sculpture is located at the Lincoln Memorial on the site of Camp Barker in Washington DC, a Civil War-era refugee camp that housed formerly enslaved and freed African Americans and is now home to an elementary school. It was placed outside of Garrison Elementary School as part of The Wax Monument Series.
The head of the 16th century US President had been taken for repairs to prevent it from detaching and falling to pieces. It is not the first time the statue, which is also a candle, has faced issues with melting. When Abraham Lincoln's statue was installed in the same location last year in September, 100 wicks atop the monument were prematurely lit, melting a significant portion of the sculpture ahead of its dedication ceremony. The statue was reinstalled in February.
The statue serves as one of the significant representations of the American Civil War and is also intended as a commentary on America's monument culture. However, as temperatures increased near triple digits over the weekend in the US, the heat turned the statue into a droopy mess. The head is slated to be reattached later on after repairs.
Netizens react to Abraham Lincoln's melting statue
As usual, netizens had a field day with the viral photo of the melted statue of Abraham Lincoln in Washington. Some online said Lincoln looked as if he was reacting to an annoying work email or sinking into a couch after a long day, according to New York Times.
Virginia-based artist Sandy Williams IV, who installed the masterpiece, said paraffin wax was used to create the statue that can withstand up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The sculpture is part of two series by Williams: 40 ACRES Archive, which identifies forgotten Black histories in the United States, while the other, Wax Monuments, contrasts the marble immutability of most public art with the softness of wax replicas.
"I previously had joked that when our climate gets bad enough to where we are living in an environment where the ambient heat melts these sculptures, that’s when this work becomes an environmental artwork. I didn’t know that was going to be this summer," she said. However, Williams hoped the memes would lead to more people seeing her artwork.
Record-breaking heat in US
More than 100 million people across the US were under heat warnings as of Sunday, with cities on the East Coast bracing for record-breaking temperatures as a 'heat dome' has swept the country, causing the dangerous conditions to expand to the West Coast. Climate change has fueled dangerous heat waves across the Northern Hemisphere and will continue to deliver dangerous weather for decades to come, research shows.
New York City opened emergency cooling centres in libraries, senior centres and other facilities. While the city's schools were operating normally, a number of districts in the surrounding suburbs sent students home early to avoid the heat. Meteorological authorities also issued an excessive heat warning for parts of the US state of Arizona, including Phoenix, on Thursday, with temperatures expected to reach 114 degrees Fahrenheit.
Extreme heat is suspected of causing hundreds of deaths across Asia and Europe as it has taken over cities on four continents. More than 1,000 have died during Haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, amid sweltering temperatures this year. The heatwaves are occurring against a backdrop of 12 consecutive months that have ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons, according to the European Union's climate change monitoring service.
(with Reuters inputs)
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