courtesy benjamin l. hooks central library.
The sculpture was prominently featured on postcards for Southland Mall.
Dear Vance: Do you know what happened to that modernistic sculpture that greeted visitors inside Southland Mall? — R.T., Memphis.
DEAR R.T.: So sturdily constructed of stainless-steel beams that it would have survived a thousand years, Strands of Mirror barely made it past 15. I’ll tell you the sad story in a moment, if you have the time.
courtesy benjamin l. hooks central library.
Beverly Pepper puts the final touches on Strands of Mirror.
When this region’s first shopping mall opened in Whitehaven in August 1966, our newspapers published special sections to explain why Southland was called “The Showplace of the Mid-South.” With more than 50 stores under one roof, “where the temperature inside is always 72 degrees,” it offered big names like Goldsmith’s and Sears along with dozens of smaller shops. Some of these were well-known here, such as Baker’s Shoes, Casual Corner, and RadioShack. But there were plenty of oddities at Southland, too. Does anybody remember the Del D Farm, the Gift Box, Radefeld’s Bakery, or Contour Chairs?
What Southland didn’t have — which became a staple of malls to come — was a food court. Inside, Piccadilly Cafeteria, the Southland Delicatessen, and Gridiron were tucked among the other retailers.
But what it did offer customers in the early years was an artwork unlike anything most Memphians had ever seen. “Strolling along the three-block concourse,” observed The Commercial Appeal, “shoppers find themselves face to face with an objet d’art that evokes comments from ‘It’s ridiculous’ to expressions of delight.”
The newspaper noted that the “prize-winning sculpture” had cost the mall $30,000 — but the story didn’t explain what prize it had won, exactly, or who paid for the artwork. What I really wanted to know was who selected the artist, a 24-year-old named Beverly Pepper, who lived — not in Memphis at the time — but in Rome, Italy. And a remarkably talented sculptor she was, too. What was her work doing in Southland Mall?
courtesy benjamin l. hooks central library.
The sculpture was the cover subject of a 1966 trade magazine.
Digging through files in the Memphis Room, I turned up a May 1966 copy of Welding Design & Fabrication magazine, which featured Pepper’s Southland Mall piece on the cover. “Her medium is steel, and apparently, the bigger the plate, the happier she becomes,” the writer said. “Her latest sculpture, an abstract called Strands of Mirror, is an exquisite example of bigness. It towers 18 feet, spreads 14 feet, and weighs 9,000 pounds.”
Working out of the Steel and Alloy Tank Company plant in Newark, New Jersey, Pepper took three months to fabricate the piece, doing all the cutting, grinding, polishing, and welding herself. “She didn’t approach her work cautiously; she attacked it with dedicated enthusiasm,” according to the article. “So engrossed was she in her work, she didn’t notice the many scratches, burns, and smudges she collected.”
When completed, Strands of Mirror first went on display in Chicago as the centerpiece of the Steel Service Center Institute’s annual meeting at McCormick Place. Afterwards, it was loaded onto a special railroad car for its journey to Memphis, where it was installed in the center court of Southland Mall.
As it turns out, Strands was an early work by one of the world’s most accomplished steel artisans. Born in 1922 in New York City, Pepper is still alive today, living in various places around the world, which probably explains why she never answered my pesky emails about this particular sculpture. Who could blame her? Over the course of a long and illustrious career, she has completed hundreds of massive works, crafting them out of steel, iron, and stone. Along the way, her accomplishments have been recognized with prizes, awards, and honorary degrees. It’s unlikely she would remember something she made more than half a century ago.
So — back to your question, R.T. — what became of it? I hate to say this, but even though Strands of Mirror was prominently featured in Southland’s early promotions (such as the postcard on the opposite page), apparently the mall simply discarded it.
I pestered quite a few people in the local art world about this. Nobody knew what happened to it; to my surprise, most of them didn’t remember it. Finally, I came across a 1981 article in The Commercial Appeal headlined, “Southland Mall Remodeling Underway.” Uh oh. Among other renovations, the mall’s general manager said that the “9,000-pound steel structure in the existing fountain will be replaced with a more spectacular design.”
Cut apart and discarded? Melted down for scrap? Are shiny fragments gathering dust in somebody’s backyard? All I can say for sure is that Strands of Mirror no longer graces the fountain of Southland Mall.
Got a question for Vance? Email: askvance@memphismagazine.com
