Not since Paige Bradley’ Expansion have I been this intrigued with a sculpture. A 20 feet long, 8 feet high sculpture called Freedom, is currently located in front of the GSK World Headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. In 2000, sculptor Zenos Frudakis created it around our universal need to break free from a situation, be it an internal struggle or an adversarial circumstance.
“Although there are four figures represented, the work is really one figure moving from left to right,” he shares on his website. “The composition develops from left to right beginning with a kind of mummy/death like captive figure locked into its background. In the second frame, the figure, reminiscent of Michaelangelo’s Rebellious Slave, begins to stir and struggle to escape.The figure in the third frame has torn himself from the wall that held him captive and is stepping out, reaching for freedom. In the fourth frame, the figure is entirely free, victorious, arms outstretched, completely away from the wall and from the grave space he left behind. He evokes an escape from his own mortality.”
Hidden within the large scale sculpture are casts of tools which the artist used to make this sculpture, 25 people, a cat that Frudakis had for 20 years, his own face and coins. Though each have of its own personal or symbolic meaning, they are also there for those who pass by to discover something new and interesting. Frudakis also created a space where he’s written “stand here” so that people can place themselves inside the sculpture and become part of the composition.
