• Racial Tension - Who's Behind Black Lives Matter?
  • United Kingdom: the demolition of the statue of slaver Edward Colston causes a political storm

On June 7, Jen Reid, a young woman from Bristol, climbed up to the pedestal that had vacated the statue of slave merchant Edward Colston. From there, dressed in black and with the Black Lives Matter proclamations scattered at her feet, she raised her fist in honor of the movement and the iconic territory conquered by knocking down the effigy. Invested herself as a new statue of flesh and blood, the young woman became a symbol that the artist Marc Quinn has immortalized in a work that, clandestinely, has been placed today in that same place.

"I feel very proud ... really, very proud," Reid herself acknowledged in The Guardian newspaper . In it, the young woman remembers how it all started a few weeks ago, just a few days after the Colston effigy ended in the waters of the English city docks. Quinn, who posed the young woman in the same attitude, used a 3D scanner with 201 cameras to capture even the smallest detail for his sculpture made of black resin, the artist's distinctive mark.

The 'union' of the two stemmed from an Instagram post by Reid's husband with a photograph titled "My wife. My life. She matters." After giving him a 'Like', the artist launched a project called ' A Surge of Power (A Surge of Power) Jen Reid 2020': "When I saw that photograph it immediately came to my mind that it would be wonderful to be able to immortalize that The image was a silhouette, it was already a sculpture in itself. "

For Quinn, who came to exhibit his work in Trafalgar Square in 2004, the most important thing is the message that will be transmitted to the city: "Racism is a big problem, a virus that must be solved. I hope this sculpture help continue that dialogue, to keep these ideas in people's minds and to be conducive to all that energy. The image that Jen created that day, that moment when she stepped onto the pedestal with all hope flowing through she makes the possibility of big changes happen more real than it was before. "

Still, neither the artist nor the model expect the statue to stay in place, but it has to be "a spark" that "holds the attention". Since they have not received official permission to place it there, it will be removed and auctioned for charity.

In addition, and faced with the possibility of being criticized for the fact that a white artist is responsible for a tribute like this, Reid does not consider that what matters is the color of the skin, but the commitment to the movement. "I wanted to do this with Marc Quinn because he has always been concerned with betting on the inclusion of minorities and making people think. It is not about black or white, if there is someone who wants to support me, that is enough for me" adds the young woman.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Racism
  • UK

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