A statue of a woman involved in the Black Lives Meter campaign was unofficially installed yesterday in place of a statue of Edward Colston, a slave-linked businessman in the British city of Bristol, but has now been removed by city officials.
The statue was removed by Bristol City Council staff on Thursday morning, just 24 hours after it was installed. Bristol Mayor Marvin Race says no formal permission has been obtained to place the statue on the pillar.
“The city council has removed the sculpture and it will be kept in the museum until the artists who made it take it back or donate it to us,” he tweeted on Thursday.
However, in a tweet on Wednesday, he said he understood that “the public wants a statement, but no formal permission has been obtained for its installation and that it is up to the citizens to decide where they want to place the statue of Colston.”
A statue of Jen Reid, dubbed the “Journey of Power,” was erected in the middle of the city on Wednesday morning.
Artist Mark Quinn, who created the sculpture, said the purpose of temporarily installing the sculpture was to continue the talk of racism, but he did not know how long it would last. It can stay for a month, or a year, but it’s not like it will stay there forever. That’s what I think. ”
He said he came up with the idea to build the statue during the Black Lives Matter protest on June 7, when Jen Reid raised her hand and stood there, and that moment impressed him. He said, he then contacted Jen Reid via social media and they worked together on the statue.
“I saw Jen on the pillar and I was impressed by her demeanor,” he said. By doing so, they have made an extraordinary work of art a reality and needed to be presented in some form. ”
“It should have been in a public place and I wanted to keep it where the statue of Edward Colston was before,” he added.
“My husband took a picture on the day of the protest and posted it on his social media,” Jen Reid told the BBC. “I then went to his studio, where 201 cameras took pictures of me from every angle,” Jane added. They were 3D printed and sculpted.
“I think the people of Bristol really appreciate being installed here,” said Jane Reid, adding that the statue was important because it helped advance the cause of racial equality and justice.
“It simply came to our notice then when I stood on the pillar and raised my arm to salute Black,” he said. I didn’t even think about it. It was like lightning.
“This statue is about showing solidarity with my mother, my daughter and black people like me,” she says.
The Women’s Equality Party in the UK tweeted, “Yes! The statue of Jane Reid, one of the protesters in the Black Lives Matter campaign, is one of the things we can be proud of in our history.
Jasmine Kasaya said, “This Black Live Meter campaign … It was started by three women in the United States and is still being pursued by women around the world. It may be the only statue of a black woman in any major British city.
