1989 Emerging Continents

Blake explains that this piece, entitled 1989 Emerging Continents, “is inspired by the repressive action of the Chinese government in Tiananmen Square [Spring 1989].
The Asian figure represents the “Chinese student, head bowed in submission”, his body “sinking into the depths of repression”. It symbolises political servitude. By contrast, the African figure is “the image of a native African rising in triumph from the restrictions of a political power”. It echoes the triumphant release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa (February 1990) and symbolises political resistance. The stone on which the African figure’s hand rests represents “a piece of the Berlin Wall” (which fell in November 1989), representing “those political injustices that he survives”.
The marble thus represents both that which imprisons and that which sets free, but above all serves as a permanent reminder in the collective consciousness of these three historic events that occurred in the late 1980s (the repression of protests in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall), and the early 1990s (the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa).

Blake William Ward was born in 1956 in Canada’s North West Territories. From the age of 19, Blake studied art history at the British Academy in Rome, before returning to Canada to complete a degree at the University of Alberta from 1975 to 1979. After graduating, Blake continued his studies of figurative sculpture in Europe’s art capitals, first in Manchester at the Polytechnic Institute (1984), and later in Paris where he was regularly to be found at the workshop of Cyril Heck between 1986 and 1989. During his time in Paris, he concentrated on the traditional techniques used by figurative artists, and developed a precise model of representative work. For Blake Ward, figurative sculpture is the language of the human mind.
His pieces are often modern interpretations of classical themes, and his work attempts to express beauty and awaken our spiritual senses. In keeping with the European tradition, no more than a dozen examples are made of each sculpture.
Blake Ward has lived in the Principality since 1991, and three of his monumental sculptures are on permanent display here: L’Éveil can be found in the Trocadéro Gardens on Place des Moulins; Les Atlantes and 1989 Emerging Continents are in Fontvieille.