At the first light of dawn, activist replaced the toppled statue of Edward Colston with a sculpture of a Black Lives Matter in Bristol. The new statue depicts activist Jen Reid with her fist raised after Colston statue was torn down and dumped into harbour in June.
Black Lives Matter statue instead of Edward Colston statue
The artist Marc Quinn leaded a group of 10 people, in the installation of the statue of Jen Reid at around 5am on Wednesday. In 15 minutes, they raised the statue using a hydraulic crane truck, before council officials could intervene. At the bottom of the plinth, they put a cardboard placard saying “black lives still matter“. This month, protesters threw the statue of Edward Colston in the harbour during BLM protest. Bristol city council is still debating about the future of this statue. Other statues around UK have been removed like those of Baden-Powell and Milligan.
Ms Reid, a stylist who took part at BLM march found the statue of “absolutely beautiful” this morning. “I’d better get a picture before they take it down”, she declared. The representation BLM movement through this statue was “massive”, said Reid. Then added: “it would be just as big if it was someone else representing the same thing. This is going to continue the conversation. I can’t see it coming down in a hurry.”
The author of the statue, with the title A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020 said: “I’ve always felt it’s part of my job to bring the world into art and art into the world“. Mr Quinn also commented: “Jen created the sculpture when she stood on the plinth and raised her arm in the air. Now we’re crystallizing it. The only thing that could have stopped it would have been some kind of official intervention, but it didn’t happen. It looks like it’s alway been here.”