Freedom - Philadelphia, PA
N 39° 57.480 W 075° 09.962
18S E 485818 N 4423108
“Freedom” is a public sculpture created by Philadelphia-based artist, Zeno Frudakis, who wanted to create something that regardless to background, everyone could relate to the idea of struggling to break through.
Waymark Code: WMHW7R
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/18/2013
Views: 5
This 20 feet long, 8 feet high sculpture called Freedom, is currently located in front of the GlaxoSmithKline World Headquarters in Philadelphia, PA who commissioned the sculptrue. 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. SOURCE
About the Artist
Zenos Frudakis (born 1951) is a figurative sculptor whose subjects include portraits of living and historical individuals and poetic/philosophical sculpture with a post-modern sensibility. He lives and works near Philadelphia. SOURCE I have seen his work in my home town of Cherry Hill at a fountain called 
Dream to Fly. Dram to Fly is also a multi-phasic sculpture like this one. In a career spanning over three decades, Frudakis has produced monumental figures such as the United States Air Force Memorial Honor Guard, and the beauty, Freedom. I love the Frank Rizzo statue located at the Municipal Services Building, also created by Frudakis.