"A Subtlety" is the large-scale sugar-coated sculpture by American artist Kara Walker. The sculpture features a sphinx-like black woman, 35 feet high and 75 feet long in Brooklyn’s legendary Domino Sugar Factory.

A Subtlety was dominated by the sphinx, but also included fifteen other sculptures. These Banana Boys, as they were called, were 60-inches-tall and weigh 300-500 pounds a piece. Five were made of solid sugar. The other ten were first built from sugar as well. However, they collapsed under the heat, and were replaced with versions made of resin and coated in a layer of molasses, made by Sculpture House Casting.

Photography: Jason Wyche