An unauthorized statue of a Black Lives Matter protester was erected on the base where a monument once stood to honor British slave trader Edward Colston.
The life-size resin and steel image of Jen Reid, who was photographed on June 7 standing at the empty base after protesters downed the Colston statue and dumped it into the port of Bristol, was uploaded before dawn Wednesday without approval of city officials.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Reid. “It looks like it belongs there. It looks like it’s been there forever.”
A new statue titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020” is found after it was placed this morning on the empty base of the downed statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England. (AP)
THE CROWD IN THE UK OPEN THE STATUE OF EDWARD COLSTON
Colston was a 17th century merchant who made a fortune by transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas on ships based in Bristol. His money funded schools and charities in Bristol, 120 miles southwest of London.
The Colston statue collapsed during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, but the Mayor of Bristol suggested on Wednesday that Reid’s new sculpture may not last long.
“To this end, the future of the socket and what is installed in it must be decided by the people of Bristol,” Marvin Rees said in a statement, adding that the decision will be “critical to building a city that is home to those who are elated by the fall of the statue, those who sympathize with its removal but are dismayed at how it happened and who feel that by removing it, they have lost a piece of Bristol they know, and therefore themselves. “
COLSTON STATUE REMOVED FROM PORT, TAKEN TO A ‘SAFE LOCATION’
“The sculpture that was installed today was the work and decision of a London-based artist,” said Rees. “It was not requested and permission was not given for it to be installed.”
After the Colston statue was thrown into the port, city officials pulled it out and said it would be placed in a museum, along with banners from the Black Lives Matter rally.
The new statue, meanwhile, is called “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid)”.
Jen Reid poses for photos in front of the new statue on Wednesday. (AP)
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Marc Quinn, the artist behind this, said Reid had “created the sculpture when he stood on the plinth and raised his arm in the air.”
“Now we are crystallizing it,” he added.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
