This Statue of Ron DeSantis Melts Dead Away to Illustrate the Dangers of Climate Change

Better grab a mop and pail

First, the Wicked Witch of the West. Now, Ron DeSantis.

A statue of the outgoing Republican Governor of Florida turns into a puddle of slop to demonstrate the deadly consequences of climate change.

The installation was constructed from gallium, a metal that “Can’t survive the rising temperatures he swears aren’t real.”

The results are impressively chilling. Silvery stuff drips away in dribs and drabs, leaving a skeletal remnant just in time for Halloween (and the midterm elections).

Created by non-profit 350Action, Uncommon Creative Studio and production house M ss ng P eces, the statue melted in Tallahassee on Oct. 13, as temperatures topped 89 degrees.

Muse chatted with Sam Shepherd, CCO at Uncommon, about the project.

What inspired this idea?

Weirdly, it started with a metal, not a man. Someone on the team brought up gallium, which is solid in your hand and turns to liquid at 85.6°F, and we all went a bit quiet. Then we found out that’s below Tallahassee’s average summer high, and it was game over. That’s the kind of fact you can’t un-know.

Was DeSantis always your target choice?

We churned through a few politicians. But honestly, once you put the material next to the man who literally wrote climate change out of Florida law, nobody else really stood a chance. The best ideas feel slightly inevitable, as if they were sitting there waiting for someone to notice.

Can you describe the vibe at the big melt.

We unveiled him in Tallahassee on Tuesday in front of his supporters and he started melting shortly afterwards, which was quite something to watch. It’s a demonstration, not a monument. We 3D scanned and printed him so the detail would be properly photoreal, then cast him in solid gallium. So he’s made of a metal that gives way under exactly the conditions he legislated against acknowledging. I love that we didn’t have to add anything to that.

Did he Gallium Ron last long in the heat?

It took about an hour. That’s the beauty of it. The hotter Florida gets, the faster the statue melts. The weather writes the ending, not us.

So much more dramatic than a traditional PSA.

An ad tells you what to think. This just shows you, and then gets out of the way. Nobody has to take our word on climate when they can watch a governor slide off his own plinth on an October afternoon. I’m a bit obsessed with brands and ideas that don’t over-explain. The work that travels furthest usually leaves a little gap for people to fill in themselves. You see it, you don’t totally get it yet, and you’ve already sent it to three people. The melting statue doesn’t need a tagline. The tagline is the puddle. All we have to do is point people to 350action.org and ask them to vote like it matters.

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