LONDON (Reuters) – A sculpture of a Black protester with her fist raised in the air has been erected in place of a 17th Century English slave trader whose statue was toppled by anti-racism demonstrators last month in Britain’s port city of Bristol.
Edward Colston, who made a fortune from trading in West African slaves, was pulled down and thrown in the harbour last month by anti-racism protesters demonstrating in the wake of the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
The death of Floyd led to protests for racial equality and police reforms across the United States and around the world.
The sculpture of Jen Reid, who was photographed standing on the plinth of Colston’s statue, was put up in the early hours of Wednesday by a team directed by artist Marc Quinn, the Guardian reported.
“Resident Jen Reid and I have unveiled a new temporary, public installation, ‘A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020’, on top of Edward Colston’s empty plinth in Bristol, England,” Quinn said on Instagram beside a photograph of the new work.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
