Sculpture will honour activist
Liu awarded Peace Prize in absentia while jailed by Chinese government
A group of organizations advocating for human rights, freedom and democracy unveiled Tuesday a plan to install a bronze sculpture of an empty chair in Toronto, in memory of late Chinese writer and activist Liu Xiaobo.
A longtime fierce critic of the Chinese government on issues of freedom and democracy, Liu died of liver cancer last year while serving an 11-year prison sentence. In 2010, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle to defend and promote human rights.
But the government of China refused to grant him permission to travel for the ceremony in Oslo, and the Nobel Prize committee symbolically placed his award on an empty chair in a bold statement about his absence.
“We want to memorialize him the best way we can,” said Cheuk Kwan, spokesperson for the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.
The group is one of the organi- zations working to raise at least $50,000 for the production and installation of the chair.
Renowned Canadian sculptor Ruth Abernethy — whose works include the Glen Gould statue at CBC and Oscar Peterson sculpture at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa — will work on the project.
The plan, according to Kwan, is to have the installation ready in time for next year’s 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
There’s no word yet about where exactly the chair will be installed, but Kwan said it will be in a public space like a park or a city square.