The statues are coming down. Some are surprised how easy it is to physically remove a statue, or just pull it down. It’s true: removing a bronze statue can be as simple as cutting through a handful of bolts, far less effort than it takes to reach consensus about whether the statues should stay or go. Statues of this kind, that commemorate famous men (and sometimes women) in public places outdoors generally sit upon a plinth or platform of some kind. That pedestal is by far the more difficult piece to remove, being a large block of solid stone or other masonry extending well below the soil’s surface.
The pedestal is essential to the statue – it keeps Stonewall or whoever from sinking into the ground or tipping over – but people don’t have strong feelings about plinths. It’s just the stage for the main event. A grand pedestal makes its statue higher, but also elevates it figuratively, saying that whatever stands atop it is worthy of attention, if not veneration. When the statue goes, that stage becomes empty. The way things are going, we may soon have quite a few of them.
What hen happens to the empty pedestals? The obvious choice is removal. Removing a pedestal is not so emotionally fraught, just a surprisingly expensive bit of demolition. Demolish the plinth, excavate its substantial footing, fill in the hole, and cover the spot with grass or pavement. You can make it look like no statue was ever there. That’s erasure, and some will say that is exactly what should happen. That park or avenue can look as though this entire argument we are living through never happened at all.
From an urban design standpoint, statues are more than who or what they honor. They are often the focal point of a space. The kind of traditional statues of soldiers and statesmen in question here typically form part of a symmetrical, classical layout, as the center of a circle or endpoint of an axis, for example. As focal points, they do not simply say “look at this person,” but also “look at this spot,” highlighting a location where lines cross or an important space is entered. If that focal point is totally erased, it will be odd, like a missing tooth. In other places, Confederate statues are one memorial among many, grouped on a courthouse lawn or in a park. In those situations, one memorial more or less won’t matter so much.
What else can you do with an empty pedestal? You can put something else atop it, a new player on the stage. This could be another permanent (sort of) memorial to a less controversial hero. Or you could sidestep permanence and use that spot as a rotating gallery of sorts, like the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. Replacement is erasure, too, in a different, more dynamic form.
The empty pedestal itself calls to mind cathedral niches deprived of their saints during the Reformation. Those niches speak eloquently of the history of their churches and abbeys, before the Reformation and after. The empty pedestal and the void above it are themselves history. They are questions rendered in stone: what was here? why is it gone? why was it here in the first place?
Over 150 years have passed since the end of the Civil War, and we are arguing, bitterly, over these statues and what they mean and to whom. One hundred fifty years far surpasses the duration of the war itself, from 1861 to 1865. Our divisions over race, which are inextricable from the Civil War and its memory, are of course far older, essentially beginning with European settlement of North America. As a shaping force, these centuries-long divisions may be more influential than any war, even one as bitter as our civil war. If our public space should highlight important elements of our history, perhaps these divisions deserve a mention. But how do you memorialize a rift?
The empty pedestal makes a statement of its own. Here something was venerated, for some reason, and then it was not, for some reason. Perhaps these questions and the rifts they highlight deserve a spot among our war heroes and founders. A few of our soon-to-be empty pedestals could remain vacant, filled with questions about who we’ve been, and who we are.
(Also posted on Medium here.)
Sanamu hizo zinashuka. Wengine wanashangaa jinsi ilivyo rahisi kuondoa sanamu, au kuivunja tu. Ni kweli: kuondoa sanamu ya shaba inaweza kuwa rahisi kama kukata kupitia vijiti vichache, juhudi kidogo sana kuliko inachukua kufikia makubaliano juu ya kama sanamu zinapaswa kukaa au kwenda. Sanamu za aina hii, ambazo huadhimisha wanaume mashuhuri (na wakati mwingine wanawake) katika maeneo ya umma nje kwa ujumla huketi juu ya nguzo au jukwaa la aina fulani. Kiunzi hicho ni vigumu zaidi kuondoa, kwa kuwa ni jiwe kubwa au jiwe lingine linaloenea chini ya udongo. Pedestal ni muhimu kwa sanamu <unk> inahifadhi Stonewall au mtu yeyote kutoka kuzama ndani ya ardhi au kuanguka <unk> lakini watu hawana hisia kali kuhusu plinths. Ni hatua tu kwa ajili ya tukio kuu. "Mfano wa nguzo kubwa huinua sanamu yake, lakini pia huinua kwa njia ya mfano, ikisema kwamba chochote kilicho juu yake kinastahili uangalifu, au hata kuabudu.""" Sanamu hiyo inapoharibika, jukwaa hilo linakuwa tupu. Kwa jinsi mambo yanavyokwenda, huenda punde si punde tukawa na kadhaa kati yao. Ni nini hutokea kwa viwanja vya ndege visivyo na watu? Chaguo la wazi ni kuondolewa. Kuondoa nguzo si jambo lenye kuogopesha sana, ni jambo la gharama kubwa sana. Bomoa nguzo hiyo, uchimbue msingi wake mkubwa, jaza shimo hilo, na ufunike mahali hapo kwa nyasi au barabara. Unaweza kuifanya ionekane kana kwamba hakuna sanamu iliyowahi kuwapo. Hiyo ni kufuta, na baadhi ya kusema kwamba ni nini hasa lazima kutokea. Hifadhi au barabara inaweza kuonekana kana kwamba hoja hii yote tunayoishi haijawahi kutokea kabisa. Kutoka kwa mtazamo wa kubuni mijini, sanamu ni zaidi ya nani au nini wanaoheshimu. Mara nyingi wao ndio kiini cha nafasi. Sanamu za kawaida za askari na wanasiasa zinazozungumziwa hapa kwa kawaida hufanyiza sehemu ya mpangilio wa kawaida, kama vile kituo cha mduara au mwisho wa mhimili. Kama vituo vya kuzingatia, hawajui tu "tazama mtu huyu", lakini pia "tazama mahali hapa", wakikazia eneo ambapo mistari hupitia au nafasi muhimu inaingizwa. Ikiwa sehemu hiyo ya msingi imefutwa kabisa, itakuwa isiyo ya kawaida, kama jino linalokosekana. Katika maeneo mengine, sanamu za Confederate ni ukumbusho mmoja kati ya mengine mengi, zilizokusanywa kwenye nyasi ya mahakama au katika bustani. Katika hali hizo, ukumbusho mmoja zaidi au chini haitakuwa na maana sana. Unaweza kufanya nini kingine kwa msingi tupu? Unaweza kuweka kitu kingine juu yake, mchezaji mpya kwenye jukwaa. Hii inaweza kuwa nyingine ya kudumu (aina ya) ukumbusho kwa shujaa chini ya utata. "Kama vile, unaweza kutumia ""mwisho wa siku"" kama ukumbi wa sanaa wa kugeuka, kama vile Plinth ya Nne katika Trafalgar Square ya London." Kubadilisha ni kufuta, pia, katika fomu tofauti, yenye nguvu zaidi. Nguzo hiyo tupu huwakumbusha watu kuhusu majumba ya kanisa kuu yaliyokuwa yameachwa bila watakatifu wakati wa Marekebisho Makubwa ya Kidini. Vituo hivyo vinasema kwa ufasaha juu ya historia ya makanisa na makao yao ya watawa, kabla ya Marekebisho ya Kidini na baada yake. Nguzo hiyo tupu na nafasi iliyo juu yake ni historia yenyewe. Ni maswali yaliyochongwa katika jiwe: Ni nini kilichokuwa hapa? kwa nini imepotea? Kwa nini ilikuwa hapa kwanza? Miaka 150 imepita tangu vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe vikiisha, na bado tunajadili sana kuhusu sanamu hizi, maana yake na ni kwa ajili ya nani. Miaka 150 ya vita hivyo ni zaidi ya miaka yote ya vita hivyo, yaani, miaka 1861-1865. """Migawanyiko yetu juu ya jamii, ambayo ni ya kutenganisha na Vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe na kumbukumbu yake, ni ya zamani sana, kimsingi kuanzia na makazi ya Ulaya ya Amerika ya Kaskazini." Kama nguvu ya kuunda, mgawanyiko huu wa karne nyingi unaweza kuwa na ushawishi zaidi kuliko vita yoyote, hata moja kama uchungu kama vita vyetu vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe. Kama nafasi yetu ya umma inapaswa kuangazia mambo muhimu ya historia yetu, labda mgawanyiko huu unastahili kutajwa. Lakini unakumbukaje ufa huo? Nguzo hiyo tupu inaonyesha jambo fulani. Hapa kitu kiliheshimiwa, kwa sababu fulani, na kisha hakiheshimiwa, kwa sababu fulani. Labda maswali haya na mapengo ambayo yanaangazia yanastahili nafasi kati ya mashujaa wetu wa vita na waanzilishi. Baadhi ya viti vyetu ambavyo hivi karibuni vitakuwa tupu vinaweza kubaki visivyo na watu, vikiwa vimejaa maswali kuhusu tulikuwa nani, na sisi ni nani. (Pia kuchapishwa kwenye Medium hapa.)