Statues

[Padraig]

Bernie Sanders is not a member of the Democrats; he is an independent (indeed, the longest serving independent in the Senate). One of the oddities of the US system is that you don’t have to be a member of either the Democrats or the Republicans to stand as their candidate for the President.

Of course you are right, LHC. I regard Bernie as an honorary Democrat, even a Progressive Democrat - that's because I foolishly feel that the Democrats are the goodies and Bernie Sanders and the GOP just don't go together at any level.

[french frank]

Given the mayor's African-Caribbean heritage, his own view that he found the statue "an affront" and that he "felt no loss", this was, I thought, a good statement:

"… the future of the plinth and what is installed on it must be decided by the people of Bristol. This will be critical to building a city that is home to those who are elated at the statue being pulled down, those who sympathise with its removal but are dismayed at how it happened and those who feel that in its removal, they’ve lost a piece of the Bristol they know and therefore themselves."

https://news.bristol.gov.uk/news/statement-from-mayor-of-bristol

[Richard Barrett]

It should have been taken down quickly. There are such things as planning laws

I wouldn't presume to judge what "should" have been done, and in general I'm not particularly keen on the idea of commemorating people with statues, but this strikes me as an example of art making a point that goes beyond considerations like planning permission.

[Bryn]

I wouldn't presume to judge what "should" have been done, and in general I'm not particularly keen on the idea of commemorating people with statues, but this strikes me as an example of art making a point that goes beyond considerations like planning permission.

A piece of performance art, with its removal comprising part of that performance, even. The essential aspects of that performance having been recorded for posterity.

[Richard Barrett]

A piece of performance art, with its removal comprising part of that performance, even. The essential aspects of that performance having been recorded for posterity.

Right.

[Serial_Apologist]

I understand the statue to have been made of resin? If right, one might presume that it would not be very durable for long in the open air?

[Stanfordian]

I understand the statue to have been made of resin? If right, one might presume that it would not be very durable for long in the open air?

Designed and made very quickly. All good publicity for the sculptor.

[french frank]

All good publicity for the sculptor.

Artists seize their ideas where they find them, don't they? - in this case the inspiration was a striking photo of the protester who posed on the plinth after the statue was pulled down. I quite understand that the plinth seemed the only place for it to go. Though I'd just as soon see the plinth removed and Colston - albeit in disgraced state - taking his place again and the whole memorial exhibited in a museum.

On Bristol memorials: there's a "Wetherell Place" in Clifton, named after Sir Charles Wetherell, the Recorder of Bristol who inspired the Bristol Riots of 1831 (pesky lot!) after stating in Parliament that "the people of Bristol did not want" the proposed reforms then passing through Parliament, which would have benefited such cities as Bristol. I had visited one of the city's museums and was exploring the small enclosed garden attached when I saw a blackened statue, its face eaten into by exposure to the air but then lurking in an alcove in the wall. I was intrigued to see that it was the much derided Sir Charles, who had been MP, not for Bristol but for Rye. PS Just checking for accuracy - Greatly to my disappointment, it has now been fully restored by the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery, though I see he still lurks, accompanied by bags of rubbish.

[Belgrove]

Now that there is an empty plinth in Bristol, it prompts asking the question who/what could adorn it. Whilst this should rightly be a matter for the good folk of Bristol to decide, it need not prevent the rest of from chipping in to suggest an eminent Bristolian. In this spirit I nominate Paul Dirac, Nobel Laureate and the finest theoretical physicist England has produced since Newton.

[eighthobstruction]

Now that there is an empty plinth in Bristol, it prompts asking the question who/what could adorn it. Whilst this should rightly be a matter for the good folk of Bristol to decide, it need not prevent the rest of from chipping in to suggest an eminent Bristolian. In this spirit I nominate Paul Dirac, Nobel Laureate and the finest theoretical physicist England has produced since Newton.

I don't think it should be a humam being at all....but should it be anyone....Hexham born adopted son Tom Graveney.....

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't think it should be a humam being at all....but should it be anyone....Hexham born adopted son Tom Graveney.....

If the council aren't going to re-name the Colston Hall the Keith Tippett Hall, as now seems decided, then it should be a statue of Bro. Keith, loftily replete with sideburns wearing the omnipresent cheesecloth shirt, tweed waistcoat and heavy overcoat, stood proud and Regency-pastoral elegant.

[Padraig]

I don't think it should be a humam being at all....

https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=hispaniola+ship+treasure+island&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgqPDe2dnqAhVStXEKHZcVCGUQ7Al6BAgDEDc&biw=1366&bih=598#imgrc=j2CtSiM2oP6g4M

[eighthobstruction]

https://www.google.com/search?source...j2CtSiM2oP6g4M

I fancied a ship but....a modern shape [a long shape] making plinth higher....producing a elegant 'T' shape....with patina reflecting the ornamentation of the plinth ....

[eighthobstruction]

I fancied a ship but....a modern shape [a long shape] making plinth higher....producing a elegant 'T' shape....with patina reflecting the ornamentation of the plinth ....

.....but having said that i'd like No statue at all....being that it is not such a large space and is essentially part of a large rectangular roundabout....I'd like something people centred....an archetectural play-area - shapes, water.....perhaps....(taking away the plinth in the process....)....

[Serial_Apologist]

.....but having said that i'd like No statue at all....being that it is not such a large space and is essentially part of a large rectangular roundabout....I'd like something people centred....an archetectural play-area - shapes, water.....perhaps....(taking away the plinth in the process....)....

It was amusing on telly this morning to hear someone objecting to statues being removed on the grounds that, without them, we would have nothing to remind ourselves of our history. Apart from "whose history?" I was thinking of all those who would have passed that statue daily and, looking up, nodded sagely, thanking its installers for having put it there.