Latest update November 17th, 2024 1:00 AM
Jan 11, 2013 Letters
Dear Editor,
I find it disturbing that as supposedly mature people we are not able to debate an issue of national significance without resorting to personal attacks and vilification of someone with whom there is difference of opinion. In Mr. Archer’s article entitled 1823 Monument and Ivor Thom, I noted his attacks on me as a person and his aspersions of my professional judgement.
However, I will not respond in kind. Rather I will utilize this space to counter some of the half-truths and distortions which Mr. Archer presented.
When I entered the competition to design a monument for the 1823 rebellion, one of the rules of the completion stated that each submission should be accompanied by a suggestion of a site for the monument. The Bachelors Adventure/Melanie neighbourhood was and is still my first choice.
However, when efforts were made to acquire an identified piece of land, a foundation for some sort of structure was hastily placed there. At this point the committee decided to engage the general public in the selection of a site. As such an advertisement was placed in the newspapers asking for suggestions for a site for the monument.
Having received only one response, I personally engaged residents from the Bachelors Adventure/Melanie area to petition the government to erect the monument in their neighbourhood, because to me that was the epicenter of the struggle, but no one responded.
The placement of the 1823 monument has evoked strong sentiments and emotions as it rightly should. However, this should be informed by a clear understanding of the history behind the rebellion. In Mr Archer’s opinion, the epicenter of the rebellion was at Parade Ground; history would suggest otherwise. This rebellion started in Plantation Success and spread in both directions along the East Coast, reaching as far as Mahaica.
From all accounts, 10 to 15 slaves were killed at Dochfour, six at Good hope, six at Beehive, 40 at Elizabeth Hall and between 100 and 150 at Bachelors Adventure. Trials were conducted at estates in Georgetown and along the East Coast where about 200 ‘rebels’ were tried, executed and beheaded, and their heads displayed on stakes along the East Coast and at Parade Ground.
Based on this historical evidence my question therefore is; what gives Parade Ground more prominence than any other location along the East Coast? Just for an examination of precedence: the 1763 rebellion took place in Plantation Magdalenenburg in the Berbice River. The monument commemorating this event stands in Georgetown, Demerara.
The Damon uprising took place in La Belle Alliance; he was hanged in front of Parliament Buildings in Georgetown; the commemorative monument is erected in Anna Regina.
In his article, Mr Archer also stated that “something must be fundamentally wrong if we as a people and our government entrust the selection of the site of a monument of such great national significance to a sculptor”. Mr Archer is evidently deficient in his knowledge of how the site was selected.
It was a committee decision of which I was a member; all of whom are descendants of the struggle; to use Mr. Archer’s term. Speaking about descendents of the struggle, try researching Catharine Thom who lived through the 1823 rebellion and who was also one of three women among 80 men who were the original proprietors of Victoria village.
When designing public monuments the artist must bear in mind that monumental sculptures are large three dimensional art forms or masses; they occupy space and are enclosed by space and must be viewed from all angles.
In art there are the concepts of dominance and subordinance where the work must stand out, it must dominate, and in order for this to happen the work must be in contrast with its surroundings to make it a point of interest. The sculptor must be able to manipulate the elements of art so that the monument not only stands out but is also in harmony with its surroundings taking into consideration the existing edifices and structures.
However, it should not be too dominating nor be over powered by those existing elements or structures. A case in point; can you envisage the 1763 monument as it is, being located on the island at the head of North Road and Vlissingen Road? Well, that was its intended location. However, the massiveness of the piece would have been out of proportion with its surroundings. It would not have been easily viewable, not aesthetically pleasing, and the message would have been missed.
I want it to be perfectly clear that I am a trained professional sculptor and when designing the 1823 monument neither Parade Ground nor the proposed site were considerations. However, when I was asked by the committee for my professional opinion on a number sites, having looked at the suitability of them all I suggested the site at the sea wall.
This was strictly a professional opinion devoid of anything emotional or political on my part.
To support his argument, the learned gentleman, Mr Archer, cited the Martin Luther King memorial that is located at his MLK’s birth place on Auburn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia. However it was Martin Luther King’s family and not the US government who decided where his final resting place would be.
With the passage of time when the government was ready to honor his sacrifice and give him his rightful place in history a monument was erected in the nation’s capital in Washington DC and not in the South, the epicenter on the civil rights struggle.
Mr Archer stated that my interest seems to be having my work properly displayed, enjoying a wide range of visibility. I must give him full credit for this observation. As a visual artist and monumental sculptor that is my goal; a monument tells a story, it immortalizes a particular event in history. Therefore public viewing is necessary.
Mr Archer desires the same for himself. His many articles are not confined to his personal journal but rather are published in media that are exposed to wide readership.
In 2007 a group approached me to design a monument to depict the story of slavery with the proposed site being a plot of land they acquired near the seawall. What I find intriguing is that some members of this very group who are in the forefront of the call for Parade Ground to be the site the 1823 monument, did not see it fit then to erect their intended monument at Parade Ground even though the emotional attachment and historical significance of Parade Ground was the same then as it is now.
In conclusion, I appreciate the public debate which had developed around this issue. However it would have been more useful if it had occurred earlier when suggestions for a location were being canvassed.
A number of people have judged me, some of whom do not even know me, but the people whose opinion matter most to me know that my contribution to the cause and struggle of black people and to the development of Guyana as a whole goes far beyond writing a few articles for daily periodicals.
If I had not a mind of my own I would have been all that you want me to be; all that you expect me to be; but sir, my works, actions, and deeds, are governed by my own convictions and are not the product of groupthink. I am sorry if they are not consistent with yours.
Ian Ivor Thom MS
Nov 17, 2024
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