UPDATE (July 16): The sculpture of BLM protester Jen Reid has been removed from the plinth where slave trader Edward Colston was previously held.
The statue of Jen was erected on Wednesday, for it to only be removed by Bristol City Council just over 24 hours later.
Mayor Marvin Rees said that the future of Jen's statue was up to the people of Bristol to decide, however the council contractors removed the sculpture and took it away in the back of a lorry at 5:30am this morning.
The Mayor stated that the sculpture was "the work and decision of a London-based artist" and that "permission was not requested for it to be installed."
Since then, Mayor Rees said that he would "really welcome a contribution" from Marc Quinn due to the fact the statue cost a lot of money to remove.
The council recently tweeted that Jen's sculpture will be kept in the Bristol City Council museum for the time being.
Original story below.
The statue of English slave trader Edward Colston has been be replaced with a sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester name Jen Reid.
The statue of Colston was pulled down by BLM protesters last month, and after photographs of protestors surfaced the web after the event, an image of Jen Reid (who was seen standing on the plinth with her fist raised) was made into its own statue and placed in the location Colston was kept.
The black resin and steel figure, which was put together by the artist Marc Quinn and his team, was erected this morning and has been dubbed 'A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020'. The decision to raise the statue has had no complaints from the police, only stating that it was was "a matter for Bristol city council".
London-based Marc Quinn said in a statement: "This sculpture captures a moment. It happened in the middle of the news and the worldwide ripple effect from George Floyd's killing, all of which I had been following. My friend who knew this showed me a picture on Instagram of Jen standing on the plinth in Bristol with her fist in a Black Power salute, who contacted Reid via social media to discuss the idea of the sculpture. My first, instant thought was how incredible it would be to make a sculpture of her, in that instant," adding: "It is such a powerful image, of a moment I felt had to be materialised, forever."
The mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, recently issued a statement saying that the future of the plinth "must be decided by the people of Bristol." He continued to say that the sculpture was "the work and decision of a London-based artist. It was not requested and permission was not given for it to be installed." However, Rees didn't say the statue would be removed.
Some happy people took to Twitter to praise the new statue:
The praise didn't stop there. Jen Reid's daughter, Leila, said: "It's surreal. From the kneecap to the shape of her hands, it's just her... She's proud to represent a movement, and if there's a better way to do that, I can't think of it."
A powerful moment for the city of Bristol and the rest of the UK, let's hope the Jen Reid statue stays exactly where it is.
