Statues Redressed

Last summer, Sky Arts and Liverpool Council invited a group of artists and designers to dress statues across the city to challenge, celebrate and debate the role of monuments. Some statues were dressed for a day and some a month – just a moment in the long life of a statue. Photography by David Edwards.

by Paul Lincoln

Chosen because of its rich history, Liverpool has the highest number of statues in the UK outside of London, including cultural icons like The Beatles through to sporting heroes, royalty, and monuments depicting people linked to slavery and Britain’s colonial past.

Some of the artists’ interventions ranged from the celebratory to the confrontational. The project addressed many of the city’s statues, from Peter Pan in Sefton Park to the Queen Victoria memorial in Derby Square.

Landscape architects frequently create meanwhile spaces, and Statues Redressed takes a similar approach by playing with existing infrastructures and challenging the viewer to see an object through new eyes.

In the Sky Arts documentary, former director of the British Museum Neil McGregor notes, “Liverpool is a city that has had to think about what it is.” He sees this project as a new way to engage citizens in a conversation about the city.

A number of the statues and their redressing make specific reference to Liverpool’s colonial past and its engagement with the slave trade.

These include the statue of William Huskisson which, long before the toppling of Colston in Bristol Harbour, was displaced during the 1981 Toxteth Riots. The artist responds to an empty plinth by creating a recording of one of the witnesses to the event. The response to the Queen Victoria monument has been created by fashion designer Karen Arthur and historian Laurence Westgaph, historian-in-residence at National Museums Liverpool. The statue of Disraeli is redressed by Daniel Lismore. His work acknowledges Disraeli’s role in the declaration of Victoria as Empress of India and makes a number of observations on the history of gay rights over this period. And a group of three statues, including Christopher Columbus, ‘the maker of Liverpool’, are provided with ruffs in an examination of the power, wealth, and control that they exercised.

For McGregor, the redressing of these statues raises important questions about how we want to occupy our public spaces. He also reminds us that in most cases, although an important part of the public realm, statues are ignored, pointedly noting that “every statue finds its pigeon.”

Disraeli, St Georges Hall, Charles Bell Birch, 1883, Redressed by Daniel Lismore

© David Edwards

Descriptions of each ‘redressing’ have been provided by the documentary film makers

Queen Victoria Monument

Derby Square. CJ Allen, 1906 Redressed by: Karen Arthur & Laurence Westgaph

Fashion Creative Karen Arthur collaborated with historian Laurence Westgaph, to create a cotton and hessian dress for the Queen Victoria monument inspired by Gone With The Wind.

During Victoria’s reign, cotton played a crucial role in Liverpool’s trading activities, and the wider economic success of Britain, but up until the American Civil War in the 1860s, this cotton was being picked by enslaved people in the United States - as depicted in the film.

The upcycled hessian transported goods from the African continent which added to Britain’s wealth. This satin patchwork cloak pays homage to a handmade quilt gifted to Queen Victoria by Martha Ricks, a black woman who travelled from Liberia specially to meet her idol.

This piece reflects on Liverpool’s complicity with slavery, and how Queen Victoria and Britain were beneficiaries of that as recently as 150 years ago.

Disraeli

St Georges Hall Charles Bell Birch, 1883 Redressed by: Daniel Lismore

Historians and biographers have debated at length the life of Disraeli. Renowned as a flamboyant dresser, and with a history of intense relationships with men, there seems a duality that under his watch vicious anti-homosexuality laws were imposed by Britain across the Empire.

Building on the title which Disraeli established for Queen Victoria, ‘Will the real Empress of India please stand up?’’ asks us to consider the extreme impact and discrimination of these laws for the LGBTQ+ community throughout history and to the present day, while also questioning what historical social structures did to stop individuals living their own truths.

William Huskisson

Princes Avenue, Toxteth John Gibson, 1847 Redressed by: Harold Offeh

Artist Harold Offeh has made a sound piece telling the story of an event that took place nearly forty years ago – the toppling of the statue of William Huskisson. The statue was toppled during the Toxteth riots by a group of activists offended by Huskisson’s support for slavery. Harold Offeh has recorded the testimony of one of the people there on the night it happened, Stephen Nze. Stephen’s story can now be heard by anyone visiting the plinth.

Christopher Columbus

Sefton Park Leon-Joseph Chavalliaud, 1898 Redressed by: Taya Hughes

For centuries, historical accounts have celebrated the Empire-building endeavours of European explorers, claiming they ‘discovered’ whole continents, while ignoring indigenous populations. It’s a version of history that’s now inspired this three-part installation by designer Taya Hughes, from fashion label Tayamika.

Three elaborate Elizabethan style ruffs made from traditional fabrics associated with the indigenous populations of Africa, New Zealand and Australia, speak to Taya’s personal experience of growing up in Zimbabwe as well as a wider critique of colonial rule and the cruelty and exploitation inflicted across the globe on peoples whose stories and cultures were cut out of history for so long.

Statues Redressed is available to watch on the NOW streaming service: www.nowtv. com

Details of the ‘redressings’ can be found at: www.statues redressed. com