Bob Marley’s image and message of peace, love, and unity will be on full display in Liverpool in the form of a bronze statue.
The Positive Vibration Festival is set to display a 7ft tall statue of the reggae legend on September 9th for their grand return after a 2-year lockdown. The Liverpool festival will include artists such as Hollie Cook, Benjamin Zephaniah, and poet and performer Levi Tafari, who is of Jamaican descent.
A spokesperson for Positive Vibration said, “Bob Marley is a cultural icon who is recognized and adored all around the world. More importantly, he is a symbol of peace, love, and unity- all of which are needed more than ever right now.”
The piece was commissioned to Andy Edwards known for his powerful work on not only the Beatle’s statue on the Liverpool’s waterfront, but the Mohammed Ali statue erected, similarly, in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle.
Marley passed away at age 86 after a fateful battle with cancer for 3 years. His image, musical contributions, and anecdotes still send waves across the reggae industry and in the hearts of Jamaicans and all music lovers.
Edwards said, “Peace is not having a lie down, it’s a fight. It’s not something static like a word on a T-shirt, it’s an action, an ongoing struggle. Every kind of peace throughout the world is under threat right now and we need our champions. We need Bob Marley and the power he summons at the center of the ring again. We’re about to touch gloves with the toughest challenges humanity has ever face and there’s only one way to meet that, with love and in unit.”
Bob Marley fans will find his statue on Jamaica street opposite a massive mural of Liverpool FC’s Jurgen Klopp. The entire project is being assisted by the young creatives of Staged Kaos. The unveiling of the statue will be the centerpiece of the opening of the Art of Reggae Exhibition at 92 degrees coffee.
This is just the latest of many statues of Bob Marley erected in Jamaica and countries worldwide. In 2005, a statue of Bob Marley was placed at his renewed burial site in Ethiopia, and even earlier, in 1981, the Jamaican government commissioned the sculptor Christopher Gonzalez to create a statue in memorial of Marley for Kingston’s Celebrity Park, which was later relocated to Ocho Rios’ Village Island.
