BENCH PRESS (Memorial Benches)
What started as a seemingly innocuous questioning on the wisdom of having a memorial bench in Oslo's botanical garden dedicated to Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), the Swedish physician, botanist, and zoologist, but also regarded as the founding father Scientific racism, quickly grew into a nationwide scandal. It's proposed removal or the ammending of its descriptive text, regarded as an afront to national identity by the country's far right. Dog whistle articles and editorials in the right wing press employed the usual emotive tropes around "political correctness", "freedom of speech" and the threat faced to the right and the "fatherland" by the anti-racist movement. Whilst the Liberal art set stood ideally by, others got to work.
This series was Martyn Reed (Nuart's Founder) contirbution to the debate and features a city wide series of memorial benches people, causes and ideals that Nuart supports.
#blacklivesmatter
