Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle’s Countermonument ‘I Am Queen Mary’ and the Commemoration of a Colonial Past

This paper will explore the implications of an approximately 23-foot bronze countermemorial entitled “I am Queen Mary” to be erected at Copenhagen’s harbor, honoring the resistance to Danish colonialism in the West Indies. The monument will serve as a physical reminder of Danish complicity in slavery and signify justice through the subversion of traditional colonial monuments and historical narratives. The countermemorial, better defined as a colossal countermonument, will commemorate Mary Thomas (1848-1905), a sugar plantation worker who led the biggest revolt against the oppressive work conditions on Danish plantations in St. Croix. Contemporary Danish artist Jeanette Ehlers and Virgin Islands artist La Vaughn Belle chose a key historical location for their collaborative project: in front of the former Danish West Indian Warehouse storing Caribbean rum and sugar at Copenhagen’s harbor.

Sugar plantation on St. Croix was the primary area of interest for the Danes but the need for more labor was constant. Mary Thomas, also knowns as Queen Mary, worked in the sugar plantations and led the 1878 Fireburn Labor Revolt together with three women in Frederiksted, St. Croix. Following the revolt, all four women were shipped to a women’s prison in Copenhagen. It is this historical resistance to colonial oppression in the West Indies, for centuries part of a “Nordic amnesia,” that the two transnational artists seek to make visually manifest on a site a mere mile from the former women’s prison.