Statues

The Fall of Mazeppa in Bothwell Road Park, Hamilton (severely vandalised) and King James V of Scotland being attacked by Gypsies at Cramond Bridge, Edinburgh form part of the focus of my research concerning the location, history and contemporary context of forgotten and damaged public sculpture.

The sculptures have both been displaced from their original sites.

Sculpted in 1834 and inspired by the poem by Byron, Mazeppa was an Ukranian prince who served the king of Poland and after being discovered in an affair with the wife of a Polish count was tied naked to the back of a horse and sent galloping through a thick forest as punishment. The sculpture has been vandalised to the point of abstraction and remains largely forgotten.

The sculpture of King James V was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s writings which originally refer to an attack by ‘gypsies.’ Through time the description has changed and it is now referred to as being attacked by robbers. The local authorities recently tried to sell the sculpture (and failed) in an auction without any public consultation. The sculpture remains largely unknown in a hidden location.