"Ozymandias" - 2009
Materials: Laminated wood and steel, 20’ x 18’ x 1’-6”
Location: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln. MA
Commissioning Agency: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park
This sculpture, titled “Ozymandias,” depicts an iconic male symbol appearing to sink into the ground. It draws inspiration from 19th-century images of half-buried Egyptian monuments and is directly informed by Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem Ozymandias, which speaks to the impermanence of power and human legacy:
Link to complete poem by Shelley >>
A related work in Wuxi, China >>
(Click on the thumbnails below to see an enlarged version.)
“Ozymandias” was also featured in the national comic strip Zippy the Pinhead on October 15, 2009, underscoring its cultural resonance beyond the art world.