Liberty Sculpture Park

Liberty Sculpture Park with the Crazy Horse sculpture behind it. // photo my own

On the same trip as my previous post, we stopped by Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo, a small town in between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

It is a large plot of land, by California standards, bought by sculptor Chen Weiming, which he started to populate with sculptures in 2017. The group running the park describes itself as "A park celebrating freedom and democracy while memorializing the victims of Communist tyranny." Chen calls for artists of all kind to contribute, though currently, only his own sculptures grace the park.

We arrived at dusk, safe from the daytime heat, but still bright enough to read the plaque out front stating, "Warning: No Communists allowed." Awesome. Anarcho-communism makes zero sense, anyhow.

The current main attraction, surely, is the large 64 sculpture, facing the freeway, ensuring maximum exposure. Though I'm sure the majority of motorists won't understand that it is a memorial to the June 4th, 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square, I am sure that many will end up Googling it, which would be a major win in itself. It also warms my heart to think of all the Chinese Communist Party sympathizers that will get triggered while driving to Vegas on their gambling excursion.

Cruisin' down the street in my '64...wait, what does 64 mean, again? // photo my own

There is a bas relief at the base, depicting an artist's conception of the mood of the massacre with the Chinese military oppressing the protesters, circling around a lady liberty with the words "Give me liberty or give me death," a quote from Patrick Henry around the time of America's founding. A speaker atop the CMU wall periodically plays what sounded like garbled radio transmissions, which I thought could be a little more aggressive.

The numbers 64 sparkle above the somber base, seeming to portray hope and freedom rising from the awareness of this tragic event.

Tank Man, versus a smaller tank. Or maybe Tank Man is bigger now. // photo my own

Adjacent to the 64 sculpture is the Tank Man sculpture. The scale is skewed toward the man being larger, proportionally to the tank, compared to reality. Was this a statement that the man, representing the freedom movement, has grown stronger since? I doubt that the scale difference was intentional for this purpose, but I would love to be wrong about that.

Statue of Li Wangyang. If you think Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself... // photo my own

This sculpture depicts Li Wangyang bound by chains. Li was imprisoned longer than any other protester at Tiananmen (which I'm pretty sure is what the chains represent), released in 2011. He pressed on with his activism to push China toward a freer society and a year later, he was found dead in a hospital, ruled a suicide, which many found suspicious. From decades of torture while in prison, Li was deaf and blind and his family stated that he could barely life a bowl of food without his hands shaking. Thousands in Hong Kong marched to demand an investigation.

The park is a decent start to something that is really important. Perhaps it is my own taste in art, but I do prefer more abstraction than figurative art. I much prefer it when art speaks about something more than what can just be seen with the eyes. I like art that has subtleties and abstract symbolism, but the sculptures there now don't seem to have much depth to them. Or maybe I'm missing it, which is very possible. Maybe that's not what Chen is going for. Memorializing victims of communism, as they put it, perhaps has a better medium in figurative than abstract art. And if figurative art is your thing and you value freedom, then this is the place for you!

It is only three years old. It has a long way to go and much to grow. Hopefully it gains steam and maybe eventually there will be art there more to my tastes. Still, it is well worth the hour to stop by, take a look around, and throw some coin their way.

I am eager to see this park grow into a thriving center of art dedicated to freedom.