Gabb sculpture dedicated in Belmopan
It’s been called “The Running Man”, “Z-Line” and “Lightning Bolt.” And if you’ve driven into Belmopan lately you too will no doubt have your own name for the massive white sculpture which sits at the entrance to the capital city. This evening was the official dedication of the monument, entitled “Freedom of Thought.” Prime Minister Said Musa was the man who commissioned it, sight unseen. George Gabb was the artist whose twenty year old mission finally became reality.
Said Musa, Prime Minister
“And George Gabb came up to me and said he had this idea. That he wanted to design a sculpture that would depict a freedom of thought, the freedom of thought. And as the saying on the sculpture says, a striking force moving forward in essence with all that has gone on in the past, becoming stepping stones and not as mill stones around our necks.”
George Gabb, Sculptor
“I was always saying coming together, it’s in me and I though the need twenty years ago to do something, some symbol that would effect society and the people of at time to come together; rather that fighting each other too much in this political field. And when I designed this sculpture at that time and I showed it, they were not ready for it, but that’s twenty years ago. Today even, some are not ready for it. Because when I spoke with Mr. Musa, I did not come up here to talk about sculpture at all, I came up here to talk about other business and I just said to him I would like to build a little sculpture in front of my place in Belize. Would you give me the permission, it’s government property and help me with some way to do it? And when I told him about the sculpture, Mr. Musa just got right up, pushed his hand across the desk and shook my hands and said “hey, George, I am commissioning you to do that sculpture, in Belmopan”. And I think this is the best place for it.”
Gabb noted that while it was events in 1981 that prompted him to create the design, the need for Belizeans to come together will always be there. That’s why, he says, the figure is pointing towards the National Assembly Building.
