A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020: The battle over public art in Bristol. Photo / Getty Images
A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020: The battle over public art in Bristol. Photo / Getty Images
Remember the statue of the 17th century British slave trader being toppled into the river? James Colson was his name, celebrated in Bristol until, at the height of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, he wasn't.
The plinth he was pulled off didn't remain empty. BLM activists climbed all overit and one of them, Jen Reid, was on the television news giving a clenched-fist Black Power salute. The artist Marc Quinn saw it on Instagram.
He contacted Reid and asked if he could do a sculpture of her. She said yes and that she would like to be involved. So they collaborated on a full-size black resin artwork called A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020. And shortly before 5am one summer morning, without asking council permission, 10 people in two lorries turned up at the plinth and erected the new statue.
"This sculpture is about making a stand for my mother, for my daughter, for black people like me," said Reid. "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."
She said she'd been thrilled to watch local kids standing next to it and raising their fists. "Black children and white children, together." Adults were seen taking the knee in front of it.
Repurposing the plinth of Bristol slave trader James Colson. Photo / supplied
"Hope flows through this statue," said Quinn, who is white. He called racism "the other virus facing society today".
Bernardine Evaristo, whose 2019 novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize, described it as a "demonstrable commitment to the cause of Black Lives Matter in that it shows active allyship".
Not everyone was convinced. "A genuine example of allyship could have been to give the financial support and production facilities required for a young, local, Black artist to make the temporary replacement," said one BLM supporter.
Quinn and Reid responded that they never intended the work to be permanent. "It's a spark which we hope will help to bring continued attention to this vital and pressing issue."
Quinn explained his own involvement by quoting the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." But the critics said he should not be "centring himself in the narrative around the Colston Plinth".
Others countered that by pointing out Reid was a "co-creator" of the work. Was her agency to be obliterated? Reid's daughter, Leila, said her mother was "proud to represent a movement, and if there's a better way to do that I can't think of it".
Quinn and Reid also pointed out they had not made the sculpture for profit. If or when it was sold, the money would go to two charities, both chosen by Reid and dedicated to the teaching of black British history in schools.
The sculpture didn't last: the mayor, who didn't care about the controversy but wanted his plinth back, had it taken down after just one day.
Protest can be complicated. Don't we know it. But maybe some complications are more worth working through than others.
Into the river he goes: the ill-fated statue of Bristol slave trader James Colson. Photo / Getty Images
