Empty plinths: The significance of absence

Abstract

The recent growth of the ‘fallism’ movement, in conjunction with Black Lives Matter (BLM), has seen a surge in the number of plinths that stand vacant across South Africa, the United States and Europe since 2015. This article explores the theme of the empty plinth and interrogates what the significance of absence is. It asks what role empty plinths play in fomenting discussion about historical injustices? And, how these empty plinths can be reactivated or reclaimed in a way that attempts to recognize contested memories and ameliorate contemporary divisions along the lines of race, religion and ethnicity? It considers how the British, Ukrainian and Irish states and their civil societies have variously responded to the problem of what to do with monuments (and their empty pedestals) to individuals and regimes that are guilty of human rights abuses. To draw these conclusions, it looks in detail at three examples of monuments that have fallen over an extended time period and the responses to their empty pedestals: The Edward Colston statue in Bristol, United Kingdom (2020); the Bessarabska Lenin which precipitated the leninfall across Ukraine (2013) and Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin, Ireland (1966).