Human Forms

The urge to erect statues is as old as civilisation, and it is perhaps of no surprise that among the memorial spaces created in response to Britain&s;s COVID-19 pandemic there are some that represent human forms. But this chapter highlights how varied the manifestations of this are. The case studies considered are (i) the statues of fundraiser and war veteran Tom Moore, (ii) the Reverence memorial in Barnsley, which through its seven bronze figures very consciously emphasises notions of working-class heroism, (iii) Your Next Breath in Edinburgh, which depicts four NHS staff members in a manner meant to nuance narratives of praise that risk ignoring systemic problems faced by health workers, and (iv) I Remember in Glasgow, which presents forty abstract wooden figures of humans supporting trees, accompanied by an audiobook that records a wide range of Scottish pandemic experiences. The desire to heroise and the difficulties this urge can produce is a key theme of this chapter, though critical consideration is also given to the tensions between popular, complex, and abstract approaches to memorial art.