Banksy's Idea For Toppled Colston Statue In His Hometown Of Bristol Is Iconic

10 June 2020, 12:14

Banksy suggests creative way to re-display toppled Edward Colston statue. Picture: Instagram @banksy/ PA

Banksy's laid out his idea for the toppled Edward Colston statue that had stood in the centre of Bristol- suggesting the statue be memorialised with a rope around his neck, being pulled down by the people, and it's an idea that's got some footing....

The world famous Banksy has put forward his suggestion for what to do with the empty plinth where slave-trader Edward Colston had stood before protestors tore him down and threw him into the river, and people think the artist could really be onto something...

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Posting to his Instagram account, the infamously unidentifiable artist wrote: "What should we do with the empty plinth in the middle of Bristol? Here’s an idea that caters for both those who miss the Colston statue and those who don’t."

"We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable round his neck and commission some life size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down."

"Everyone happy. A famous day commemorated."

Edward Colston was responsible for the transportation of around 84,000 slaves and the deaths of an estimated 19,000 of those people, as an official of the Royal African Company.

View this post on Instagram

. . What should we do with the empty plinth in the middle of Bristol? Here’s an idea that caters for both those who miss the Colston statue and those who don’t. We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable round his neck and commission some life size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down. Everyone happy. A famous day commemorated.

A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Jun 9, 2020 at 4:21am PDT

Since the statue was toppled during Bristol's Black Lives Matter protest last weekend, in what has become a pivotal day in Bristol's history- it has become news around the world and caused a vigorous debate about the removal statues.

Many say the statue was a piece of history, regardless of the subject's past and to remove it is to 'eradicate' the past, and plenty others reason there's no place in society to glorify figures who were responsible for millions of deaths around the world and have contributed to the structural racism still present today.

The statue of another slave trader, Robert Milligan, has since been taken down in London, and the statue of Belgian King Leopold- who has a barbaric, bloody and genocidal history has been removed in Antwerp, with the statue having already been defaced by protestors on numerous occasions.