Twitter Rejoices As Sculpture Of Black Lives Matter Activist Jen Reid Replaces Edward Colston

From ELLE

Twitter has come together in jubilation after the statue of slave-trader Edward Colston has been replaced with a sculpture of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist.

On July 15, a pre-dawn operation saw artist Marc Quinn erect his resin sculpture of Bristolian activist Jen Reid in the city centre.

Quinn says the new statue ‘crystallised’ the moment Reid climbed atop the empty plinth, where Colston’s statue had stood before it was toppled last month, and raised her first in the air in a black power salute during a BLM-focussed protest last month.

Colston’s statue was pulled down by protesters during anti-racist marches in the city on Sunday June 7 and it was then rolled through the streets and pushed into the docks. The former politician worked for the Royal African Company in the 17th Century and later became a Tory MP.

Videos of the statue being torn down have since circulated the internet and prompted questions regarding the removal of statues associated with colonialism, racism and imperialism across the world.

The new, temporary installation is titled 'A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020' and came into existence after the artist saw a friend’s picture on Instagram of Reid during the protests, following the death of George Floyd in the US last month.

When news of the new statute came to light on Wednesday, several social media users took to Twitter to celebrate Quinn and Reid’s collaboration.

‘Brilliance in Bristol,’ one user posted.

Another added: ‘A beautiful moment of artistic disruption in Bristol from Jen Reid and Marc Quinn, erected at dawn. Art!’

‘This Edward Colston statue replacement in Bristol fills me with hope,’ one user wrote.

‘I hope Bristol make this a permanent feature. I truly love this,’ added another.

Describing the moment she decided to stand on the plinth, Reid says: ‘On my way home from the protests on June 7, I felt an overwhelming impulse to climb onto the plinth, just completely driven to do it by the events which had taken place right before.

‘Seeing the statue of Edward Colston being thrown into the river felt like a truly historical moment; huge.’

She continues, explaining the decision to raise her arm in a Black Power salute as ‘totally spontaneous'.

‘I didn’t even think about it,’ she adds. ‘It was like an electrical charge of power was running through me. My immediate thoughts were for the enslaved people who died at the hands of Colston and to give them power.

‘I wanted to give George Floyd power, I wanted to give power to Black people like me who have suffered injustices and inequality. A surge of power out to them all.’

Reid says that she wanted to collaborate with the artist on the sculpture because ‘it helps keep the journey towards racial justice and equity moving, because Black lives matter every day’.

‘This sculpture is about making a stand for my mother, for my daughter, for Black people like me. It’s about Black children seeing it up there It’s something to feel proud of, to have a sense of belonging, because we actually do belong here and we’re not going anywhere.’

The statue is not-for-profit but if sold, Quinn states that all profits will be donated to two charities chosen by Reid, namely Cargo Classroom, a Black history syllabus created for Bristol teenagers and The Black Curriculum, a social enterprise founded in 2019 by young people to address the lack of Black British history in the UK curriculum.

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