Last month, Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Bristol, UK, made headlines around the world when they toppled a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston and dumped it into the River Avon.
Now, the city has an entirely new figure being celebrated on the once-empty plinth: a protester.
The statue was erected on a plinth once occupied by a statue of slave trader Edward Colston.
British artist Marc Quinn has erected a statue depicting a woman with her fist raised in a Black Power salute in the place where Colston once stood. He based the artwork on a photograph of Jen Reid, a Bristol resident who had climbed atop the empty plinth as she returned home from the demonstration in June.
After contacting Reid, the artist produced a life-sized sculpture of the moment using black resin. In a press statement released Wednesday, he said that the sculpture “is an embodiment and amplification of Jen’s ideas and experiences, and of the past, present and her hope for a better future.”
The statue placed where a monument to slave trader Edward Colston once stood. Credit: Marc Quinn studio
“My friend … showed me a picture on Instagram of Jen standing on the plinth in Bristol with her fist in a Black Power salute,” he said. “My first, instant thought was how incredible it would be to make a sculpture of her, in that instant.
“It is such a powerful image, of a moment I felt had to be materialized, forever. I contacted Jen via social media to discuss the idea of the sculpture and she told me she wanted to collaborate.”
Source: Artist replaces slave trader statue with one of a Black Lives Matter protester
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