The Seagull was created by Egyptian artist Mustafa Senbel, and is one of the world’s largest abstract sculptures at 55 meters tall. The Seagull took three years to build with the tall piece representing the wing of a seagull, and the curved pieces portraying the splash of water as it dives into sea to catch its prey. It was a gift from the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone to the City of Jeddah.
Mustafa Senbel was an Egyptian artist and was a classmate of Mohamed Said Farsi’s when both attended Alexandria University. Later when Mohamed Said Farsi became Mayor of Jeddah and undertook an expansive program to develop, transform, and beautify the city, he called upon his old friend Mustafa Senbel. “What distinguished Mustafa Senbel from the other artists who contributed to the beautification of Jeddah was his intense awareness of the relationship between mass and space and his sensitivity to their environmental context,” said Mayor Mohamed Said Farsi of his old friend.
Mustafa Senbel worked as a city planner for Jeddah from 1978 for eight years, and he is credited with designing more than twenty-five sculptures for Jeddah before he retired to Egypt.
