Bristol City Council via Twitter
29 May 2021
The statue of 17th-century Bristol philanthropist Edward Colston, which was torn down from its plinth, vandalised, and thrown into the harbour by an angry mob of Black Lives Matter protesters in June 2020 over his links to slavery, will be put in a museum alongside paraphernalia linked to the Marxist protest movement.
The statue was erected in the port city of Bristol in 1895 to commemorate the philanthropy of Colston, who died in 1721. The successful merchant and Member of Parliament had financially supported almshouses, hospitals, and schools and paid for the upkeep and repairs to Bristol cathedral and seven local churches.
Camille Silvy (1834–1910) National Portrait Gallery, London
Sarah holds a book – a sign of her education. On her left hand, rings are clearly visible, as she leans against the desk behind her. These photographs were taken one month after their wedding, a grand event which took place in Brighton on 14th August 1862, attracting large crowds and a flurry of media attention. Despite being one month later, in Silvy s photographs, Sarah wears her wedding dress.
Taken in Silvy s Porchester Terrace studio not long before the newlyweds travelled to Sierra Leone, these staged photographs were possibly intended to be distributed as cartes de visites, which Silvy produced for his wealthiest clients. This recently developed technique was based on the idea of taking six or eight small portraits, in several different positions and poses, on one glass negative. The sitters would then select from the results.
Art institutions are facing a reckoning over colonial histories and racist legacies. Though the issues aren’t new, calls to unpack the British art museum and heritage sector’s ties to colonialism have increased significantly over the past decade. As a result, institutions like the Museum Association, Pitts Rivers and Bristol Museums have begun to explore what it means to “decolonise” – the practise of exposing and undoing systems that reproduce colonial legacies – a museum.
Many of these projects include investigations into how items in museum collections were acquired and how they are interpreted and displayed. In some cases, this involves reviewing the processes of returning looted artefacts from the colonial era.