Ruth Waterman, Dutch
The Statue of Mother and Child, 1985
Ruth Waterman, a survivor of the Holocaust, created this statue as a memorial for the individuals who were affected by the disastrous chemical leak at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal. This sculpture was created with input from the survivors and is often referred to as the “people’s memorial” for this reason. The memorial depicts a wailing woman holding her infant child. The depiction of a mother and her child as the symbol for this tragedy humanizes the immense number of lives lost, showing the impacts this catastrophe had on individual families. It could also be said to suggest the multigenerational effects of environmental disasters, particularly those linked to industrial materials that contaminate the surrounding land. Label by Grace Moser