Artist Erects 10-Foot Sculpture Made Of Candy In Baltimore Warehouse

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- If you love contemporary art and you love candy, you are indebted to Matthew Gray.

He has made a 10-foot, 7,000 pound candy sculpture in Baltimore.

And it's just sitting, for all to see, in a dilapidated warehouse in East Baltimore, at 2200 Aisquith Street to be exact.

The prism, entitled "God Bless the Child," was made with 282 pounds of water, 2,520 pounds of corn syrup, 4,872 pounds of cane sugar, and various scents and flavors.

Supported by a 6-foot wooden beam, the sculpture has been in development for the past three years, Gray says.

Getting communities on board with a large candy sculpture was difficult.

"I tried to do this for three years in North Carolina, New Mexico, Pennsylvania," Gray said.

So he came to Baltimore, spending $15,000 of his own money, not asking permission, not getting any permits, and spending 36 hours continuously melting sugar and pouring it into a mold.

"It scares a lot of people, so this ended up having to be done in a rogue manner, and it's kind of got some of the street art ethos in it," he said. "It's outside of the establishment in that regard."

Eventually, though, it will fall apart -- melt, dissolve and fail.

"It's perplexing," Gray says. "I still don't understand it and I like that. You can't easily put it on a shelf. The candy is kind of a fake out, because it wants to lure you in… but it's an actual serious piece. This thing is no joke."

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