Dawn Ritch THE FUROR over the statue Redemption Song in Emancipation Park, New Kingston is entirely expected. There is always a huge controversy every time a public statue is erected in Jamaica.
Jamaican statuary is of very recent vintage, only over the last 40 years. The only statue that was erected without controversy during this time was The Runner at the National Stadium done by Alvin Marriott.
Created to honour Herb McKenley, and the acquisition of a fine new stadium, not a negative word was heard about that statue. It had on a pair of shorts, and was running like a leopard.
The installation in the parish of St. Thomas of the Paul Bogle statue outside the Morant Bay Courthouse in 1965, was an entirely different matter.
RIOT OVER BOGLE
A riot broke out in the town. Residents threatened to tear down the bronze statue and set fire to the courthouse. Meant to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Morant Bay Rebellion, the statue nearly succeeding in causing another one.
It wasn't that the Bogle statue was nude, because it was in a pair of trousers. Nor was the objection that he failed to look sufficiently warlike. He held a sword. The town's complaint was that the Bogle statue was too black, and they were going to throw it into the sea.
A photograph of Paul Bogle exists. His skin was jet black, and he had thin lips, a straight nose, and wonderful high cheek bones. One of the things to note about the Bogle statue is that the lips are very thick, and the head is of a completely different shape.
The sculptress there was the late Edna Manley, a Jamaican who was white. I doubt that many of the rioting townspeople had ever seen a photo of Paul Bogle.
Nor could they have claimed to know him personally, because he lived a century earlier. But Edna Manley knew what her subject looked like, and with artistic licence decided that Paul Bogle didn't look black enough.
Thank God the riot in St. Thomas was quelled with immediate back-up support from Kingston. There were no fatalities. And the Bogle statue remains there triumphant in front of the courthouse.
MOVEMENT OF HISTORY
There was also the virtually unquenchable public dispute that arose out of the statue commissioned to celebrate National Independence in 1962. It was going to be about 60-foot high, and erected in the Harbour View roundabout.
A brochure was published with drawings of the statue by Alvin Marriot, and an introduction by the Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante. A great public outcry arose against the statue. It was meant to symbolise the movement of history and the progression of nude figures from Sleeping to Awakening. The statue had two fully-awake nude figures at the very top or summit, and various reclining and sleeping nude figures rising from the ground up.
People said they weren't prepared to look at 100 dead bodies piled high from the ground, so the summit with its two standing figures was beside the point as far as they were concerned. Bustamante backed off
immediately.
Only the summit was done some 10 years later. The other nearly 40 foot of statue was cast, but not executed. The casts for that section I'm told, are stored in crates.
It was this summit that was recently placed on the ground in Emancipation Park. This was done, the Government said, in order to prepare the public for the permanent installation (of the nude figures) in Redemption Song.
This temporary public statuary sent Dr. Carolyn Cooper into paroxysms of alarm on public radio. She said the penis was much much too small, and an insult to the black man.
Nobody seemed to remember at the time, that this was only the summit of a much larger national monument that was supposed to stand some 60 feet high. At that height and distance nobody would be able to tell whether the male nude had a big penis, or a little one.
Readers should also note that the summit, and only the summit, is at this time being erected at the Harbour View roundabout.
If that installation continues the artistic merit of the work will have been trashed, and is hardly worthy mentioning. The statue can only continue to look slightly ridiculous, and without interest.
The same cannot be said for Redemption Song by Laura Facey-Cooper. The two nude figures have the largest penis and breasts it seems possible to imagine.
LARGER-THAN-LIFE STATUARY
This is larger-than-life public statuary. For the first time Jamaica has overscale figures of about 15 feet high. No one has yet remarked on what a delight it is to have sculpture much much bigger than oneself in a public space.
This lack of appreciation has been caused by the fact that the Redemption Song has been most ridiculously sited on a street corner. The crowds of people viewing it, have, therefore, been forced to press their noses right up against the male nude's enormous genitals.
Quite rightly, the public objects to that. They don't want to encounter a huge male member right at the entrance to a family park.
When the first Bob Marley statue by Christopher Gonzalez was erected up at the National Stadium, people pelted it with objects. A tree root had swept up from the ground to become Bob's microphone and body and the crowd shrieked "What?! Bab in a skirt?"
There were also endless complaints that the statue didn't look sufficiently like him as portraiture. The statue was hurriedly taken away.
Another Marley statue, this time by Alvin Marriott, was soon erected on the same spot suitably clad in skin-tight trousers. This statue is nowhere near as good as the one it replaces.
The Crab Nethersole statue done by Kay Sullivan and erected in front of the Bank of Jamaica is an abortion. But since it was fully clothed people quickly forgot about it.
I think the Government should do the necessary thing and install Redemption Song where it belongs right in the centre of Emancipation Park in the fountain. We need to remember that this statue is not on the scale of the Rodney Memorial in Spanish Town, and therefore can't be placed on a roadside.
RESOLVING THE ISSUE
Redemption Song is already a fountain of sorts because of the healing stream in which the figure stands.
If the statue were moved to higher ground therefore in the centre of the park, with the fountain all around it, this
would remove the public from the figures somewhat.
Then no one would be tempted to climb the statue and feel up the penis of the male nude, as has already happened. The base or disc on which the Redemption Song stands is much too small, and needs to be about three or four times as wide.
Then the whole thing would start to make sense, and there might be a happy resolution to the matter.
