Restoration

Colston	Morley	Burke

'Restoration' is part of an ongoing series of ‘impossible proposals’, this one being to revamp or radically alter major historical statues in Bristol . It was commissioned by Spike Island as part of the British Art Show 6, and first shown at St. Thomas the Martyr Church, Bristol, in 2006. Each piece consists of 6ft x 4ft, C-type photograph mounted on aluminium, MDF and formica, with metal and plastic items fixed to the front. Some figures memorialised in this way often have extremely murky history, one example being Edward Colston a major figure in Bristol’s slave trade and a great benefactor of Bristol’s poor. This series and 'Natives and Colonials' are essentially about Power – who had it, who has it and who desires it. Yet despite this, on a purely aesthetic level I often find these historical monuments beautiful. My ‘proposal’ turns these statues into fetishes, reflecting my somewhat schizophrenic response to these memorials. Other memorials, on the other hand, are often overlooked, and I want to drawn attention to objects that are so familiar we see straight through them. The text below is taken from the Spike Island Press Release, written by Lucy Byatt.

Edward VIII

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Restoration A new work by Hew Locke

Whilst the images within Restoration would have universal relevance no matter where they were, exhibited they have specific resonance in Bristol as these statues exists within this city. Like so many other cities, Bristol has erected monuments over the years to commemorate the great and the good, so familiar do these statues become that they dissolve in to the streetscape, made almost invisible. Seeing these images here in St Thomas the Martyr we are reminded of them and the history that they illustrate.

Hew Locke’s embellishment, directly on to the photographic print, interrupts our expectation that the surface of the photographic image should be left pristine. We can only guess at what lies beneath the layers of gilt and glitter, of cheap toys and plastic ornament that now encrust the area of the image where the statues are. The inscription engraved in to the stones upon which the statues stand indicate the identity of the individual commemorated, yet their new attire seems to shift their identity in to another more exotic culture. Burke’s new garb, for example, represents a classic Thai Matador and Morley an Indian Nabob. The inscriptions reference a philanthropic philosophy of donations to the poor, and the desire to do good. Edward VII reigned over an Empire rich and varied, conquering and paternal, Locke has recreated him, adorned as a Madonna like figure, dripping in finest jewellery denoting his status, like the cut of the cloths he might have worn when he lived.

It is perhaps the image of Colston that is most haunting. He is adorned with corrie shells and other trade beads, surrounded by a dark web formed by the branches of the tree. Whilst Colston’s paternalism might have brought good to the city of Bristol we are made aware of his, and many of his contemporaries involvement in the uncomfortable truths of corrupt African Kingdoms selling their people. Apologies, Locke feels, are of no use and Liverpool’s idea to change street names a mistake. “erasing the signs of the past is a mistake, these things should remain in order to remind us of what actually took place”. Locke views this work as an act of ‘mindful vandalism’, an exploration of these characters who he finds both attractive and repellent.

We live in a different age, an age of information overload, we react with outrage to the headlines that describes the evils of the sex trade or the sort of low paid black market labour that maintains the low cost of toys and other things we like to have. Whilst we know the age of slavery and exploitation is still with us we excuse ourselves as we feel that it’s all a bit remote, beyond our ability to act with effect.

The placing of the works within St Thomas The Martyr Church adds another layer to the reading of the work. The church is situated in the busy commercial area of central Bristol, the original church founded at the end of the 12th Century. As the city expanded this became the industrial area of Bristol and for several centuries was occupied by weavers, fullers, tanners and carpenters, as well as many wealthy families whose ships lay nearby. By the end of the 15th Century, the original Norman church had been transformed, and in 1791 the medieval church was demolished but the tower still retains today.

Many of the sailors engaged in the slave trade lodged in the inns and taverns and it was in the Seven Stars pub in 1787, that Reverend Thomas Clarkson met with Landlord Thomson and collected most of the evidence by talking to sailors and local people about the barbarous trade, that eventually enabled William Wilberforce to carry out his act that led to the Abolition of Slavery.