Charleston, South Carolina – Concrete hand sculptures have appeared around the Lowcountry. One woman’s art project has gone viral on TikTok, and the entire community is taking part.
“I posted a video of one that I hid at the Mount Pleasant Target, and in a day and a half, there were 30,000 views,” revealed Becky Williams, the founder and artist behind Hidden Hand Drop.
A modern-day treasure hunt began with a bag of cement and a brilliant concept. Concrete hand sculptures are hidden in plain sight around the greater Charleston and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods. Every sculpture is unique.
What began as a free-time pastime of making concrete candle jars quickly evolved into concrete hand sculptures, Williams explained. “I started making a ton, I was giving them out, and then I thought it would be fun to give them to strangers if people come across them” .
After Williams’ first TikTok video became popular, she started hiding more sculptures, each of which amplified the movement.
When someone finds one, they can flip it over to show a QR code that tells the story. “If you find it and think, ‘why is this sitting here?’, there is a tag that has a QR code that directs you to the TikTok page,” Williams told me.
Once the QR code is read, it will send you to a video of where it was buried, where others can leave comments about where and when they found it.
“I felt like I was onto something, and I’ve had nothing but positive feedback” . Williams and her husband drove around the Lowcountry looking for the right place. Every video includes a brief footage of her putting her hands in plain sight, with a hint in the caption.
Dozens of Lowcountry residents have been participating in the treasure hunt, searching for the hands every day. A hunt participant explained that the account surfaced in her algorithm.
“I saw she recently posted one, and I assumed I had ample time. I was quite excited, but I wasn’t sure if it would still be here because there were a few others in the park. “It was Friday, but I was very excited,” said Cheyenne Golten, a Hidden Hand Drop Hunter and Finder.
Williams added that she feels individuals are fighting to make ends meet on a daily basis, and that this might act as a stroke of good fortune in something simply enjoyable. With the aid of her family, she hopes to spread the scavenger hunt to other areas of the Lowcountry and possibly around the world.
To find out when the next Hidden Hand will be released, follow Williams’ TikTok account, @HiddenHandDrop.
