''A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020'' is a 2020 black resin sculpture, sculpted by
Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn (born 8 January 1964) is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, ident ...
and modelled on
Jen Reid; both Quinn and Reid are credited as artists. It depicts Reid, a black female protester, raising her arm in a
Black Power salute. It was erected surreptitiously in the city centre of
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, England, in the early morning of 15 July 2020. It was placed on the empty plinth from which a 19th-century
statue of Edward Colston
The statue of Edward Colston is a bronze statue of Bristol-born merchant and trans-Atlantic slave trader, Edward Colston (1636–1721). It was created in 1895 by the Irish sculptor John Cassidy and was formerly erected on a plinth of Portland ...
, who had been involved in the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
, had been toppled, defaced and pushed into the city's harbour by
George Floyd protesters the previous month. The statue was removed by
Bristol City Council
Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 wards ...
the day after it was installed.
Background
On 7 June 2020 the statue of
Edward Colston
Edward Colston (2 November 1636 – 11 October 1721) was an English merchant, slave trader, philanthropist, and Tory Member of Parliament.
Colston followed his father in the family business becoming a sea merchant, initially trading in wine ...
, a prominent 17th- and 18th-century Bristol merchant, philanthropist and
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
who had been involved in the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
,
was toppled during
George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom
Protests were held across the United Kingdom following the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, by police officers while under arrest in the United States on 25 May 2020. Immediately following his murder, protests and r ...
. It had stood on a
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
plinth.
The statue had become a focal point of protests against the part Bristol played in the slave trade.
Following the toppling of the statue,
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
protester Jen Reid, a woman of Jamaican descent,
climbed onto the plinth and made a
raised fist
The raised fist, or the clenched fist, is a long-standing image of mixed meaning, often a symbol of political solidarity. It is also a common symbol of communism, socialism, and other revolutionary social movements. It can also represent a salute ...
. A photograph of this was taken by Reid's husband and posted to
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
where it was seen by Quinn.
Reid said: "Seeing the statue of Edward Colston being thrown into the river felt like a truly historical moment; huge. When I was stood there on the plinth, and raised my arm in a Black Power salute, it was totally spontaneous, I didn't even think about it. My immediate thoughts were for the
enslaved people
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
who died at the hands of Colston and to give them power. I wanted to give
George Floyd
George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...
power, I wanted to give power to Black people like me who have suffered injustices and inequality."
Description and creation
The statue ''A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020'' was constructed by the artist
Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn (born 8 January 1964) is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, ident ...
and his team from black resin and steel.
It is a life-size depiction of Reid, a 49-year old black woman,
[ making the same raised fist pose she struck on the plinth shortly after the Colston statue's removal.] She is depicted wearing a casual jacket over a dress or skirt, and the black beret and glove which she had bought specifically for the march. Her left hand hangs by her side, and she has voluminous curly hair. She stands on a shallow square plinth and the entire work measures in height. Quinn and Reid describe the work as a collaboration between them, with Quinn stating that "Jen created the sculpture when she stood on the plinth and raised her arm in the air ... Now we're crystallising it."
To create the sculpture, Quinn made a 3D scan of Reid recreating the pose. The sculpture was 3D printed
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
in sections before being cast in black resin and steel and assembled. To make the statue in bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
would have added several additional months to the project.
Reid and Quinn have designated the work as not-for-profit, stating that, if the sculpture ends up being sold, profits would be donated to Cargo Classroom and The Black Curriculum
The Black Curriculum is a British community interest company, founded in 2019, whose mission is "to address the lack of Black British history in the UK curriculum". History
The organisation was established in 2019 by Lavinya Stennett, who conceiv ...
, two educational charities chosen by Reid.
Erection
The statue was erected secretly, by a team of 10 people in 15 minutes at around 5am on 15 July 2020. It was set on the Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
plinth on which the statue of Edward Colston
The statue of Edward Colston is a bronze statue of Bristol-born merchant and trans-Atlantic slave trader, Edward Colston (1636–1721). It was created in 1895 by the Irish sculptor John Cassidy and was formerly erected on a plinth of Portland ...
had stood in The Centre, Bristol
The Centre is a public open space in the central area of Bristol, England, created by covering over the River Frome. The northern end of The Centre, known as Magpie Park, is skirted on its western edge by Colston Avenue; the southern end is a ...
. The installation of the statue was not illegal, with police stating that no offence had been committed and that the statue was a matter for the council. The statue was affixed without drilling or gluing in order to minimise the possibility of damage to the plinth.
In a statement issued on the day of the statue's erection, Quinn stated that no formal permission has been sought for its erection. The Mayor of Bristol
The Mayor of Bristol is the head of government of Bristol and the chief executive of the Bristol City Council. The mayor is a directly elected politician who, along with the 70 members of Bristol City Council, is responsible for the strategic ...
Marvin Rees
Marvin Rees (born April 1972) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Mayor of Bristol since 2016.
Early life and education
Marvin Rees was brought up in Bristol, partly in Lawrence Weston and Easton, by his British mother. ...
later said that some weeks earlier Quinn had asked him about placing a statue on the plinth, but that he had refused believing it to be "not the correct next step for the city" and to have the potential to incite race-hate incidents.
Quinn's rationale
Quinn described the piece as a "new temporary, public installation", "ultimately moveable" and that it was "not a permanent artwork". However Quinn said that his team had surveyed the location and it was not easily moved.
In a comment to ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Quinn said "Racism is a huge problem, a virus that needs to be addressed. I hope this sculpture will continue that dialogue, keep it in the forefront of people's minds, be an energy conductor. The image created by Jen that day – when she stood on the plinth with all the hope of the future of the world flowing through her – made the possibility of greater change feel more real than it has before." In a joint statement Quinn and Reid wrote "Jen and I are not putting this sculpture on the plinth as a permanent solution to what should be there – it's a spark which we hope will help to bring continued attention to this vital and pressing issue. We want to keep highlighting the unacceptable problem of institutionalised and systemic racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...
that everyone has a duty to face up to. This sculpture had to happen in the public realm now: this is not a new issue, but it feels like there's been a global tipping point. It's time for direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
now."
Removal
Rees, the mayor, said the statue did not have permission to be installed, and would be removed. He had previously said that the future of the plinth would be decided by the people of Bristol. Bristol City Council
Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 wards ...
removed the statue on the morning of 16 July, and said it would be held in its museum "for the artist to collect or donate to our collection". At Rees' request, Quinn covered the cost of the removal. Quinn stated that he would offer a maquette
A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...
of the statue to the museum.
Later that summer a planning services company retroactively applied to Bristol City Council for planning permission
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
for a two-year installation of the statue on the plinth. The Council made "a conscious decision not to proceed with the processing of those applications" because the ''We Are Bristol History'' Commission set up by mayor Marvin Rees was considering a wide range of issues about the city's past. The company lodged an appeal in March 2021, leaving the decision to be made by a planning inspector at a later date.
Reactions
The erection of the statue was met with both praise and criticism. ''The Guardian'' reported that, during its short time on the plinth, the statue was mostly popular with passersby in Bristol. A group was reported gathering in objection to the statue, while others took photos, or took the knee. Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
-winning author Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Black ...
described it as "demonstrable commitment to the cause of Black Lives Matter in that it shows active allyship" and addressed the lack of public statues of black women in the UK.
In his ''Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' review, art critic Alastair Sooke
Alastair Sooke (; born 1981) is an English art critic, journalist and broadcaster, most notable for reporting and commenting on art for the British media and writing and presenting documentaries on art and art history for BBC television and ra ...
interpreted the erection of the sculpture as "a vainglorious stunt". The sculptor Thomas J. Price described the work as a "PR stunt and con", suggesting that it was about Quinn profiting himself. Price said: "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. This would have positioned Black voices into a genuinely powerful position to reclaim their history in an authentic way. Instead, a moment of social change that should have been about bringing equality and real opportunities to Black people has been hijacked."
Charlotte Jansen, writing for Elephant Magazine, noted Quinn’s previous lack of interest in the themes of racism, colonialism and black history in Britain and that he had proved a lack of understanding of systemic racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...
by taking up space and centering himself in the narrative around the Colston Plinth.
In an article for ''Art Review
''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013.
History
Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...
'', Kadish Morris suggested that Quinn and Reid’s use of the term ‘collaboration’ to describe the work could serve as a loophole for the artist to avoid the charge of exploitation. Morris writes: "It’s easy to be enchanted by visibility, but quick-fix reactionary gestures are flimsy grounds to fight antiblackness upon. Sculptures created by white men that bypass democratic processes (for which activists in Bristol have campaigned, for too long) are not the kinds of radical justice we need to see in the arts and culture sector."
References
External links
Jen Reid: Statue of Black Lives Matter protester appears on Colston plinth
– includes photo of Reid's original pose
* - includes several images of the sculpture and its removal
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surge Of Power
2020 disestablishments in England
2020 in England
2020 sculptures
2020s in Bristol
Black Lives Matter art
Black people in art
Statues in Bristol
Statues removed in 2020
Resin sculptures
Sculptures by Marc Quinn
Sculptures of women in the United Kingdom
Statues of activists