I wou off a f great Uld love to kill few of those t stone men Author on her campaign to replace our pointless statues
Crime queen Denise Mina wants to add to the hefty bodycount racked up in her best- selling novels – and some famous men had better beware.
But this time the slaughter will be bloodless – and the victims facing an undigni f ied end are the statues in Glasgow’s George Square.
The Field of Blood writer would like to see a radical overhaul of public statues. She isn’t a fan of “busts of great men” and admitted she found it “really thrilling” when slave trader Edward Colston’s statue was ripped from its plinth and tossed into Bristol harbour last year.
City statues and their links to some of Britain’s darkest days remain a talking point. On one side they are unmovable markers of moments in our history. To others they need to be brought down as a way of recognising history rather than statues of people we’ve never heard of dominating our public spaces.
Denise, 55, who will appear on Sky Arts’ Landmark tomorrow looking for an artist to create a new piece of UK public art , said: “Things change. Just because something is made of stone and in a public place doesn’t mean the values stay the same.
“My least favourite type is busts of great men. What’s the point of them? They are just markers. People are blind to them.
“Statues are just somewhere for your dog to go to the toilet. It’s not really a statement of who we are.”
In June last year hundreds gathered to “protect statues” in Glasgow’s George Square after Black Lives Matter activists demand the removal of the memorial to former Prime Minister Robert Peel.
Of the 12 statues there is only one woman – Queen Victoria – and the others are made up of politicians like William Gladstone (whose statue was put up the most recently in 1902), soldiers like Sir John Moore and Field Marshall Lord Clyde, and great Scots including Robert Burns, inventor James Watt and chemist Thomas Graham.
Police put a statue of William of Orange in Glasgow’s Cathedral Square under 24-hour guard after it was hit by IRA and Black Lives Matter graffiti. And a statue of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn was daubed with the words“Robert was a racist”.
While not condoning what happened, Denise, from East Kilbride, said: “I’m all for changing all the statues in George Square. The Romans had substitute heads so when Caligula was deposed they didn’t have to change all the statues they just took heads off and put the next guy’s head on. I’d love to see
tue from someone from Glasgow who one knew from that generation who wouldn’t orth a statue. here’s a bench to a guy called Midnight ie who was a professional gambler. He did a good in his community but didn’t make loads ney, didn’t import sugar from Jamaica. s a certain echelon who think public art eirs. But you see public art all the time. le make art and they don’t even know why hat it means. ople put their dog jobbies in a poo bag and it on the railing, which I don’t understand but there’s sometimes millions of them. That’s c art. Imagine bronze poo bags hung on gs. You’ll get a bigger reaction to that than ue of whoever in George Square.” e targeting of statues made the headlines Bristol slave trader Colston’s bronze statue toppled, graff itied and thrown into the our by protestors. nise revealed: “The Colston statute being wn into the harbour in Bristol I found really ing. I loved it because it meant people were ally engaged in what these things are saying r than just being deferential.” e finds her favourite monument in Scotland The Kelpies but the vandalised Boer War memorial in Kelvingrove Park. The memorial was targeted in 2019 and had the face smashed and both feet broken off with a hammer. But a stonemason restored the memorial to Scots soldiers who fought in South Africa.
Last year it was vandalised again with graffiti, as was the Thomas Carlyle statue. And in April it was targeted again with the words “No peace?” spraypainted on it.
Denise said: “Someone took exception to it and it was repaired by someone who was well meaning but didn’t quite match it. It’s also a different colour.
“It’s now become this appalling piece of public art but is fantastic because so much is going on. Someone even put a cone on its head.
“It’s become accumulative and it’s so ugly now it’s brilliant.”
Like Colston’s statue which is now in a museum and has become a piece of public art, so has the Boer War memorial. No longer forgotten and walked past, the vandalised monument has become talked about.
While you may ask why Denise is interested or should have an opinion, she is well placed and is a guest judge for the Scottish heat of the Sky Arts Landmark series. She did Art History at university and grew up in Paris, spending many hours in the Louvre.
She said: “I know a lot about art and I’m very opinionated about it. I love modern art and conceptional art. I really love Tracey Emin’s art and art that makes you think in a completely different way”
Fronted by Gemma Cairney, Landmark – which will be on Sky Arts tomorrow at 8pm – has been testing 18 of the UK’s most talented artists to create the country’s next major landmark which will be shown in Coventry, City of Culture for 2021.
Scotland’s hopes rest in the sixth and final regional heat. Denise will join expert judges curator Clare Lilley and artist Hetain Patel to chose a Scots winner who’ll join the other regional winners in the final.
The artists hoping to get to the final are Annie Cattrell, Kevin Callaghan and Michael Pinsky. Denise said: “All three are quite astonishing. They are surprising, exciting and speak to the moment.” While Denise is known for her writing books including The Field of Blood, The Long Drop or latest Rizzio, about the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots’ friend – lately she’s become a face on TV, alongside Frank Skinner for Boswell & Johnson’s Scottish Road Trip.
Denise is just back from filming their second trip around Cumbria in the footsteps of Coledridge and Wordsworth.
There is talk of a third series with the duo heading to America.
But she said: “I’ve got a feeling I’m going to tail off from more TV work. I’m sick of the sound of my own voice. I think I started doing it as a panic reaction because people offered me things and I thought that sounds a bit scary so do it.
“I don’t know if it’s me. But I had another lovely time with Frank. What a treat that guy is.”
“I’ve not been part of a double act before apart from me and my partner fighting in restaurants. But we never get paid for that.”