In Summer 2021, Sky Arts followed a group of artists including Bob and Roberta Smith, Chila Kumari Burman, Daniel Lismore, Taya Hughes and Stephen Jones as they took on Liverpool's statues including Liverpool Resurgent (aka Dickie Lewis), Kitty Wilkinson, Benjamin Disraeli, Christopher Columbus and The Beatles.
In a unique project the artists were invited to creatively reimagine some of Liverpool’s most iconic statues, giving them a whole new look by dressing them up or creating art around them.
The documentary special, Statues Redressed, broadcast on Sky Arts and streaming service NOW from October 2021, saw the artists challenge and celebrate the role of these statues in modern times, as part of the ongoing debate around who and what should be immortalised as public monuments.
Chosen because of its rich history, Liverpool has the highest number of statues in the UK outside of London, including cultural icons like The Beatles through to sporting heroes, royalty, and monuments depicting people linked to slavery and Britain’s colonial past.
Chila dressed two statues – the Liverpool businessmen, the Moores brothers, who used to be friends with her dad – and the ‘Saint of the Slums’ Kitty Wilkinson, who she chose to celebrate as one would a Hindu goddess, for all that she did for the people of Liverpool.
Having moved to Liverpool from India, Chila's Dad owned an ice cream van on Victoria Road in Formby – where John Moores lived – and the two men became close friends.
It is a rare thing for someone you knew to be cast in bronze. Chila's work reflects more upon the compassion and joy of the person, rather than upon the artwork.