PHOTO: No Liberty, Amsterdam, Holland


This is a photo of the statue of No Liberty. It is in Amsterdam, located at the Rijksmuseum - the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts. The statue weighs 8 tons, and stands at 9 metres in height.

I like the statue because of its "comic" nature, which is what brings irony to the structure: there is nothing funny about sacrificing one's entire adult life on the grinding day-to-day treadmill of work. There is no freedom from the grind - if we stop working, we get no money, and in a material world that is fixated and dependent on money, that means desolation and destruction.

The statue is 9 metres tall (that's over 4 times taller than me, and I stand at 6 feet and 3 inches, or 1.9 metres), but viewers cannot appreciate that scale without a reference point. That's what adds to the comic and ironic nature of the structure - the really large man seems quite small. The fact that he is completely grey makes him inconspicuous, boring, and almost insignificant.

But without the "grey man / grey human", who provides the labour that keeps the world productive and "in the money", this material world would amount to nothing.

The fact that the figure is holding up a torch, reflects the idiom of "carrying a torch", which is to maintain hope in a hopeless situation, and to support and love something that does not reciprocate. Essentially it is an image of a lonesome hopeful who continuously trudges on with the delusional belief that "someday it will all be better and worthwhile".


Image: Statue of No Liberty, Amsterdam, Holland. Copyright - Michael Beaton

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