The toppling of statues and other political symbols creates new spaces that are themselves a reckoning for society.
Tag: statues
With increasing frequency, Iranians are destroying or defacing the monuments of revolutionary and clerical leaders that they have come to loathe as symbols of oppression. It is a dangerous act of protest against the regime, which has called the vandalism “vile.”
Anti-racism and anti-colonial protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd raise new questions about how societies fill their public spaces.
Among the many villains through Europe’s colonization of the African continent, a case could be made that Belgium’s King Leopold II was the worst. Responsible for the genocide of an estimated 10 million people, the 19th-century monarch ordered his troops and administrators to pillage the central African colony known as Belgian Congo, renamed the Democratic […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — City officials across the country are nervously trying to figure out how to avoid becoming the next Charlottesville as alt-right leaders and white nationalist groups vow to stage more rallies in coming days. A group claiming it is advocating free speech has planned a rally for Saturday on the historic Boston Common, with a group advocating racial justice planning its own gathering in opposition. Boston officials said they have laid down strict conditions, including no sticks, weapons or backpacks. “Make no mistake: We do not welcome any hate groups to Boston, and we reject their message,” Mayor […]
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Extra Plump
Statues of Buddhas are famously plump, but these chubby figures at Kelaniya Temple near the Sri Lankan capital Colombo really take the cake.
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Panoramic Dancing
These gaunt, alien-like musicians overlook Reykjavik, near the iconic Perlan observatory, giving an eerie feel to an already otherwordly landscape.
Italian museum officials covered up prized ancient statues for the visit of Iranian President Rouhani. But what do we lose with such overly eager attention to Muslim sensibilities? And what about our own?
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Jumped Off The Page
When I dug up this shot of the statues of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza next to the monument to their author Miguel de Cervantes, in Madrid’s Plaza de España, it got me hunting for other literary characters who had come to statufied life: I’ve got one photo of the Little Mermaid in […]
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Old But Gold
Considering the remarkably preserved state of these stone elephant bas-reliefs, you would never guess that Anuradhapura, one of Sri Lanka’s ancient capitals, is actually among the oldest cities in the world. Perhaps that’s what this Buddhist monk was thinking about too?