American Wax

American Wax

Philip Ringler

2024

American Wax is a visual lament, a conceptual excavation of the American political psyche—both its present turmoil and its deeply entrenched historical weight. The series conjures an uncanny valley of melancholic, melting figures, their forms slumped in an unsettling mix of embarrassment and despondency. Distressed wax hands claw through the suffocating confines of the patriarchy’s myopic gaze, while faceless, alien Divine Feminine forms stand in silent endurance against the looming specters of the founding fathers and their ideological descendants.

Inspired by Hiroshi Sugimoto’s haunting portraits of wax figures, American Wax subverts the illusion of realism by leaning into its own grotesquerie. Instead of using black and white to enhance the semblance of life, I allow sickly, garish colors to seep through, evoking a visceral sense of existential nausea. The images are deliberately murky, noisy, and slightly desaturated, further dislocating them from their source: The President’s Hall of Fame, a neglected, mildewed roadside attraction in Central Florida. Yet, this work is not about the place itself—it is about an idea, a metaphor for the decaying illusions of power, legacy, and national mythology.

This work is an act of desperation—an artist’s attempt to process the looping, confounding question: What is happening in this country?

The images are meant to be printed large, immersing the viewer in a full-bodied confrontation with these warped effigies of governance and control. More than mere critique, American Wax seeks to evoke catharsis, to ignite conversation, to challenge the narratives we passively inherit. At its core, this work is a call to witness, to engage, and, perhaps, to envision something different.