In the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020, global protests against racialized police brutality targeted statues and other public art forms symbolizing racism. Either framed as a “weird global media event” or “global iconic event,” Floyd’s murder forced a reckoning with histories of oppression and systemic racism, with a potential enduring social effect and a transnational historical significance by inviting resonance and global solidarity. This article focuses on the U.K. context and spans a decade to invite a rethinking of ideas of crisis, history, and hero through a consideration of the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue and its pushing into the Bristol Harbour on June 7, 2020, by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters, and Yinka Shonibare CBE’s artwork Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle (2010–2012), commissioned for the “Fourth Plinth” temporary exhibits in Trafalgar Square. Such consideration bears on this contemporary moment when we are witnessing globally connected protest actions calling for the decolonization of public material culture.

2020 年 5 月 25 日乔治·弗洛伊德 (George Floyd) 被谋杀后，全球抗议种族化警察暴行的目标是雕像和其他象征种族主义的公共艺术形式。弗洛伊德之死被定义为“奇怪的全球媒体事件”或“全球标志性事件”，迫使人们对压迫和系统性种族主义的历史进行清算，通过引起共鸣和全球团结，具有潜在的持久社会影响和跨国历史意义。本文聚焦英国背景，跨越十年，通过考虑 Black Lives 于 2020 年 6 月 7 日推倒爱德华·科尔斯顿 (Edward Colston) 的雕像及其推入布里斯托尔港的情况，重新思考危机、历史和英雄的观念Matter (BLM) 抗议者和 Yinka Shonibare CBE 的艺术品Nelson's Ship in a Bottle（2010-2012），受委托为特拉法加广场的“第四基座”临时展览。当我们目睹全球相关的抗议行动呼吁公共物质文化的非殖民化时，这种考虑与当代时刻息息相关。