Fernando Sánchez Castillo – Liberty For All, 2020
Fernando Sánchez Castillo
Liberty for All, 2020
Series 1: Rabo Art Offer
maple wood
40 x 12.5 x 9.5 cm
edition 100
The edition is packed in a wooden box which can also be used as a pedestal.
It comes with a signed certificate of authenticity.
The production of Liberty for All, the edition by Fernando Sánchez Castillo is acollaboration with Rabo Art Collection. The edition is divided in different series:
Series nr 1: Liberty for All, 2020, Rabobank Art Offer, ed. 100 SOLD OUT
Series nr 2: Liberty for All, 2020, Retro-Expectatives, ed. 100 SOLD OUT
Description
Fernando Sánchez Castillo presents Liberty for All: a work produced as an edition, a small wooden version of the Statue of Liberty, but now with the face of a non-white person. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States, a gesture of friendship in honor of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. It was ultimately dedicated on 28 October 1886. Inspiration for the Statue of Liberty came from Édouard René de Laboulaye, a prominent political thinker and outspoken advocate of the abolition of slavery. It is said that the original plan of erecting the statue dates back to a conversation between De Laboulaye and the French sculptor Fréderic Bartholdi. With the statue they wished to pay tribute to the Afro-American soldiers, emancipated from slavery, who fought in the American Civil War; for that reason they proposed to model the statue after a portrait of an Afro-American person. That idea proved to be a bridge too far however. Not until 2017 would the face of a non-white Lady Liberty appear on an American coin.
The Statue of Liberty is a monument that symbolizes freedom. Sánchez Castillo’s small wooden version of it has an ambiguous title. ‘Liberty for All’ refers, in fact, to all movements of protest and emancipation that are aimed at achieving equal rights and freedom for all. At the same time the title betrays the hope that this statue, and especially its inherent meaning, will reach as many as possible. The fact that the statue is being produced as an edition, and that the work is available for a modest price, is meant to underscore that wish.