Aug. 17, 2008 — A nearly 10-foot tall bronze sculpture by Virgin Island artist Edney Freeman will be unveiled in three weeks as part of the 2008 Olympics celebrations at the World Sculpture Park in Changchun, China.
Freeman wishes he could be there to see his "Mocko Jumbie and Tourist" make its debut.
He traveled to Changchun in 2006, where, 8,144 miles from home, he created his work of art.
Freeman, who taught art at Charlotte Amalie High School for the last 30 years, was asked in late 2005 to submit a sculpture proposal to the Organizing Committee and Urban Construction Sculpture of Changchun China for the 8th International Changchun Sculpture Symposium. By late 2005, not having heard from the committee, Freeman's growing anxiety was put to rest when he heard, just three days ahead of Dec. 24 deadline, that his proposal had been accepted.
He was invited back for the unveiling of the sculptures at the Conference World Sculpture Park Sept. 6 and 7, and the committee is picking up the tab for all expenses as it did in 2006; except this year, Freeman must pay his own airfare, about $5,000 he does not have.
The committee will also cover expenses for someone to accompany him, and he wants to bring his wife, Hariyah, a photographer.
He says he entered an essay contest earlier this year to win the airfare, but only learned in late July that his had not been a winning essay. So, he says, at this stage, he is dependent on "the kindness of strangers," or those not so strange, his fellow citizens, or a government agency. "I am humbly asking the community to support me," he says.
Freeman says his liaison in Changchun can arrange his visa. When he traveled in 2006, Delegate Donna Christiansen, whom he may call on again, arranged it.
"When I went before," Freeman says, "the government didn't select me to represent the territory," he says. "To my knowledge, there was no diplomatic contact between the V.I. government and the People's Republic of China. I spent my own money to bring local gifts for my hosts," he says.
Freeman is still upbeat, as seems his nature, as he talks about his experience in China, his desire to return, and his artistic journey Saturday as he supervises about a dozen students who are brushing up a mural at CAHS.
"I've been artist in residence at several stateside locations," he says, "but nothing can compare to the time I spent in Changchun, China, 40 singular and surreal days. There were 45 of us, international sculptors from Angola to Swaziland to the Faeroe Islands, Samoa, and the Caribbean – the Bahamas, Grenada, Barbados and Haiti."
From time to time, we dart between exotic China and the CAHS campus. "Michael," Freeman instructs, "finish up the blue first. Use it all up" – The student looks at him askance. "Yes, go ahead," Freeman says. "I need to use that container."
Clad in jeans and a paint-speckled T-shirt and apron, Freeman's touch with the students is easy, the bantering brief. "The students haven't changed over the years," he says, while instructing another to use a "lighter brown on that hand."
"They're still students. The hook getting them here today is community service," he confides. "They have to donate 100 hours."
Freeman took to shaping things around him early on. "As a little guy, I used to make things out of mango seeds," he says, "whatever I could find. I grew up in Savan, and I went to Dober School until the 5th grade, when we moved to New York."
He lived in New York, earning a bachelor's degree in art education from City College of New York and a master's in ceramics and sculpture for teachers from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
When he left New York in 1977, Freeman says, "It was a terrible time, strikes and a harsh winter. What do you do when things are bad? You come home." He began teaching art at CAHS then and has no plans of retiring soon. "I have an 18-year-old son, Regel, just starting college in the States," he says.
Freeman's China experience in 2006 is as fresh in his mind as yesterday. He says because of the different nationalities, they called each other by their country. "Malaysia, Libya, Brunei and I became close, living together, dining, touring and dialoguing on different levels," he says.
"For most of us, it was the first time working on this scale, executing a life-sized or larger sculpture proved to be more of a physical than a technical challenge for some," he says. "For me, it required climbing up and down a shaky scaffolding and moving a ton of clay. Transforming a 12-inch scale model into a three-meter bronze piece requires understanding materials and engineering concepts, especially structural and aesthetic balance."
Freeman says, the theme for the World Sculpture Park is Friendship, Peace and Spring. "The centerpiece for the park is a 23-meter sculpture created by five of China's most favored sculptors, which consists of three girls and a dove of peace," he says. "It makes me feel really proud to know my sculpture will be there."
Freeman can be reached at 998-5785.
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