On Monday, in the dead of night, a group intent on a secret mission quietly gathered. They converged on the English old slave port of Bristol’s waterfront area,
Well about as quiet and secret as a plan involving a truck with a low loader and crane could be! By morning a new statue graced the plinth from which the one of slave trader Edward Colston had been toppled and dumped in the dock. It recreates an iconic image from that night when protestor Jen Reid mounted the plinth to give a Black Power type salute.
Artist Marc Quinn said the black resin statue, called A Surge of Power, was meant to be a temporary installation to continue the conversation about racism.
He said he was inspired to create it after seeing an image of Ms Reid standing on the plinth with her fist raised during the Black Lives Matter protest on 7 June.
Mr Quinn then contacted Ms Reid through social media and they worked together on the statue, which was erected shortly before 04:30 BST.
www.bbc.co.uk/…
Marc Quinn is possibly best known for his sculpture of the pregnant artist Alison Lapper which was on the “Fourth Plinth” in London’s Trafalgar Square in 2005. The plinth was vacant and is now used for a rotating display of modern statues or installations.
Marc did not have permission to erect the statue. The city Mayor was and I presume still is intending to hold a public consultation on the statue of Colston’s replacement. That has now been recovered from the river and will be slightly restored to preserve the red paint sprayed on its face during the protest. It will go on display together with banners from the protestors in a museum.
Sadly another piece of graffitti by a Bristolian has been removed by a cleaner who was unaware it was by the elusive artists Banksy and probably worth millions.
On a brighter note, it looks like the significant BLM protests in the UK did not cause a major increase in COVID-19 infections. Many wore masks and usually kept some distance, as the space allowed. The decline in new cases and daily deaths has continued in the weeks after the protests, which were held while the country was still in “lockdown”.