A conversation with La Vaughn Belle (US Virgin Islands) and Jeannette Ehlers (Denmark) about the postcolonial legacy of Denmark in the Caribbean as well as the weight and impact of built heritage within the landscape. What are the Monuments that inform our space? How can we think of creating Monuments for the present and the future?
Public Art becomes a means to bridge the past to our present, while confronting historical injustice and erasure.
I Am Queen Mary is a transnational public art project created by La Vaughn Belle of the US Virgin Islands and Jeannette Ehlers of Denmark-two artists connected by their shared Caribbean roots and colonial histories. Together they created the first collaborative sculpture to memorialize Denmark’s colonial impact in the Caribbean and those who fought against it. This monumental work debuted in March 2018 in front of the West Indian warehouse in Copenhagen in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the sale and transfer of the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands) to the United States. As the first monument to a Black woman in Denmark, I Am Queen Mary made international headlines as a symbol that celebrates and centers the story of people who resisted Danish colonialism in the Caribbean.
Support & learn more here: I Am Queen Mary