Ice Sculpture Spelling 'Democracy' Melts on National Mall in Washington, DC

[demmiblue]

As of this morning, the 3,000-pound ice sculpture spelling out “Democracy” placed yesterday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. has likely melted. Though the installation is short lived, that’s entirely the point.

Standing at five feet tall and 17 feet wide when it was first installed, the sculpture, titled Last Call DemocracyICED, was made in New York by conceptual artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese before it was transported in a refrigerated truck to DC.

The icy message comes courtesy of Ben Cohen, a well-known activist and the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, and his Up In Arms campaign, which demands Pentagon expenditures be reduced and redirected towards public health care and education. Cohen told the Washington Post in an interview that Last Call DemocracyICED was “a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans.”

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/3000-pound-ice-sculpture-national-mall-washington-dc-1234757575/

Amazingly, the way the Democracy ice sculpture melted, it almost left the word DECAY…

— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T06:54:22.603Z

[Torchlight]

1. K&R

[chowder66]

2. I wouldn't be surprised if the artists added something to the d,e,c,a and y to purposefully have it leave decay.

Or maybe they just left the 'e' off to shorten it or it didn't work as well in the 'e'.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. ding. this . du rec

[Donkees]

4. I remember Ligorano's "Middle Class" sculpture. The video soundtrack featured Bernie's filibuster and falling ice

A Thousand Cuts 2011
…A THOUSAND CUTS is the time-lapse video of the Middle Class’ disappearance that took place in the garden of Jim Kempner Fine Art in 2011. Over 60,000 people have seen it on the internet. Senator Bernie Sanders featured it on his Senate website and Rachel Maddow reported on it.

Senator Bernie Sanders’ 8-hour Senate floor filibuster against the Bush tax cuts punctuates the disintegration of the middle class sculpture, orchestrated to music by composer/violinist Michael Galasso.

Sculpture Design – Nora Ligorano
Editor – Marshall Reese
Music – Michael Galasso
Color Correction – Eli Friedman
Ice Sculpture – Okamoto Studio

In 2011 as the Congress debated the budget, we installed an ice sculpture of the words Middle Class in the garden of Jim Kempner Fine Art. We filmed this timelapse of the sculpture disappearing using Senator Bernie Sanders' filibuster against the Bush tax cuts as a soundtrack. Senator Sanders featured it on his Senate homepage.

https://ligoranoreese.net/videos/

[canetoad]

5. How cool!