TO MURDER A STATUE
Mythological Re-Imaginings and Black Lives Matter Daisy Norfolk Trigger warnings: racism The recent destruction and vandalism of colonial sculptures across the globe both within and external of the Black Lives Matter movement have elicited a series of responses in regards to issues of race, marginalisation, and whether or not people should be destroying colonial statues. I argue that both the actions and reactions of statue destruction illuminate the contemporary re-imagining of the ‘classical identity’ within Western society. Ancient Greece and Rome have long been celebrated as the founding civilisations of Western society, and thus their values, ideologies, and institutions have been preserved not just historically, but through the continuation of a cultural legacy in the West. The first section of this essay will address Western society’s idealisation and mimicry of classical mythology and the contemporary repercussions of this. The second will examine how colonisation was, and continues to be, legitimised and defended as an act of culture within the classical identity. The third section investigates Western anxieties surrounding the demolition of the classical identity via the destruction of colonial ‘heroes.’ The final section examines how ‘murdering’ colonial statues is an effective action in illuminating racial marginalisation and challenging those with invested interests in the classical identity. A re-examination and rejection of Classics as a perceived living culture is necessary to understand the actions of statue destruction within the Black Lives Matter movement.
Figure 1: Columbus Statue, Columbus Park, Boston MA 1979, Tuscan marble. It is imperative to reject classicism as a re-imagined cultural identity due to colonial and thus contemporary glorification and idealisation of ancient Greek and Roman societies within the Western viewpoint. In some ways Western society has created its own aetiological mythology stemming from the concept of ancient Greece and Rome as a foundation, worshipping Greek philosophers and Roman politicians. Thomas Eliot wrote ‘We are all, so far as we inherit the civilisation of Europe, still citizens of the Roman Empire.’1 This lengthy ‘legacy’ of Western civilisation stemming from classical roots is something that has been parroted throughout centuries. However, this has led the West to model its society on the values, ideologies, and practices of the Classical period. For instance, after the Wurundjeri Land was stolen by Batman and Fawkner ca 1835 CE, the Hoddle Grid was erected atop the colonial settlement two years later in 1837 CE. 2 The Hoddle Grid was modelled after the Hippodamian Plan, a widely popular city plan during the Classical period, fifth century BCE.3 Many Greek cities adopted the plan and it was even imposed on Greek colonies such as Alexandria.4 Not only were European colonists modelling the ‘ideal’ city from Classical Greece, but they were also mimicking its colonisation process of building a city in their image atop colonised land. Furthermore, erection of famed colonists’ monuments—such as the Columbus statue in Columbus Park that was beheaded in June 2020—show the West’s continued idealisation of their selfperceived classical heritage through mimicry of white marble and the format of megalithic individual dedications that resemble classical sculptures.5 Although Classical Greek and Roman sculptures were colourfully painted, the Western romanticisation of the white marble as inherently ‘classical’ in style prevails. The way the Classical period was raised on a pedestal by Western society informed the actions and beliefs of Europeans in the colonial era. Furthermore, the way classicism and colonialism is celebrated today creates a cultural legacy that perpetuates the ancient social institutions of Greece and Rome, thus the classical identity must be dismembered in order to facilitate decolonisation. The preservation of Classics within Western cultural identity led to the perception of colonisation as a cultural institution during the colonial era and has subsequently informed contemporary treatment and understanding of those deemed ‘colonised.’ Johnson highlights the striking resemblance between the artworks A Native Wounded
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