British artist Maggie Humpling, whose memorial to feminist icon Mary Wollstonecraft will be unveiled in London on Tuesday, said the lead diary will be « dance a dance to the Kamala Harris dance to become the first female Vice President.
Humpling said it was « terrible » for women to remain so underrepresented among the statues in the British capital, with activists saying that more than 90% of the memorials celebrate the men, praising Blstonecraft
« Mary Wollstonecraft was the life force in the women’s fight for freedom. Humpling told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that she was a pioneer of the women’s movement.
“I think she will dance a dance in her grave to celebrate Kamala Harris. She will be skeptical about this wonderful thing that has happened.”
Wollstonecraft, an 18th century feminist, was living a colorful and unconventional life – at one point she ended up with a single mother in the midst of the French Revolution
She is best remembered for her book « Vindication of the Rights of Woman, » published in 1792, where she advocated for gender equality a century before the women’s suffrage campaigner.
But Wollstonecraft has been written out of history for a long time due to attitudes toward her personal life, which included so many things
« It was a powerful force » Humbling, one of Britain’s most famous contemporary artists, said, « A monument has long been awaited »
Her sculpture comes amid a debate about the cultural significance of public statues and calls to commemorate more women.
Hampling said: « Certainly the number of important women equals the number of important men, and it is appalling that there is such a lack of artifacts. »
Author B Rollat, who led a 10-year campaign to create a memorial, said Wollstonecraft’s ideas had changed the world, but her legacy was buried in a « misogynistic attack » after she died in childbirth at the age of 38
Cast in silver bronze, « Sculpture by Mary Wollstonecraft » shows a tower of intertwining female figures rising, surmounted by a figure representing all the women who challenge the world
Wollstonecraft quote – « I wish women had no authority over men, but over themselves » – written on the rule
Hampling said that the battle for women’s equality is not over yet, and the statue can be considered « a rocket of hope that ascends into the sky. »
The artist said she wanted the statue to reflect the spirit of Wollstonecraft, not its shape, and to move away from the tradition of « heroic male statues » to create something timeless that passers-by can engage with
She added, « The moment someone puts on a historical costume, everything belongs to history. »
“(The composer) Mahler said,“ The tradition is not worshiping the ashes, but rather preserving the fire ”- and it was definitely full of fire.
The statue is erected in Newington Green in North London, where Wollstonecraft lived and ran a girls’ school, but Humpling would miss the opportunity to unveil Britain
Her other famous statues include a London memorial by Oscar Wilde, showing him rising from a granite coffin, a cigarette in his hand, and a giant steel shell on a beach in eastern England dedicated to composer Benjamin Britten
The Wollstonecraft sculpture comes two years after the statue of Millicent Fawcett, who led the campaign for the right to vote, was erected in London’s Parliament Square.
Earlier this year, anti-racist protesters toppled a statue of a 17th-century British slave trader in Bristol and briefly replaced it with a statue of a black protester
Mary Wollstonecraft, Maggi Hambling, UK, Feminism, Women’s Rights, Kamala Harris
World News – Great Britain – A memorial to a British feminist icon « long awaited » according to artist Hambling