The sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester has replaced the downed statue of a 17th century slave trader in England.
BLM protester model Jen Reid sneaked onto the Bristol pedestal that housed the 125-year-old Edward Colston statue until protesters dragged her to the nearby port on June 7, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Reid told the network that she was passing the empty pedestal after the protest when she was inspired to climb to the top and raise her fist in a spontaneous show of solidarity, with her husband taking a picture of the moment, the network said.
“I think it is something that the people of Bristol really appreciate seeing,” Reid said.
“When I stood there on the socket and raised my arm in a Black Power salute, it was totally spontaneous,” he told the BBC. “I didn’t even think about it. It was as if an electrical charge of energy was going through me. ”
The gesture caught the eye of artist Marc Quinn, who said he contacted Reid via social media and teamed up with the activist to create the black resin statue, which sneaked onto the pedestal Wednesday night.
“I saw photos of Jen on the socket and she made this gesture spontaneously and I thought, ‘This is amazing,’ Quinn said. “She made an extraordinary work of art just by doing that and she needs to crystallize on an object and put it back on the socket.”
“It had to be in that public realm and I wanted to put it in that loaded place where Edward Colston had been before,” said the London-based artist.
The Colston statue had been located near the floating port of Bristol since 1895.
Colston was an instrumental figure in the growth of Bristol, but he built much of his fortune through the slave trade, and became an early target for BLM protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s police custody death in Minneapolis. May 25.
However, it is now likely that Reid’s replacement statue will only remain in port temporarily.
“I understand that people want expression, but the statue was erected without permission,” Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said on Twitter.
“Anything put into the socket outside of the process that we have implemented will have to be removed,” Rees said. “The people of Bristol will decide their future.”
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