Renowned Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson has won, by popular vote, the 2023 Public Statues and Sculpture Association (PSSA) Marsh Award for the most popular new sculpture in the United Kingdom.
Watson won the award for his National Windrush Monument erected in Waterloo Station, London.
Watson’s National Windrush Monument, which commemorates the Windrush Generation who boarded the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948 for the United Kingdom, went up against several shortlisted sculptures such as Denise Dutton’s Mary Anning, John McKenna’s The Riveters – Port Glosglow Shipbuilders, Thomas J. Price’s Warm Shores, among others.
According to the PSSA’s website, the sculptures are judged based on the criteria of concept, realization, impact on the discipline, reception, engagement, and wider benefits.
In a statement, Watson said it was a great honor to have been challenged with the responsibility of creating the National Windrush Monument.
“My parents were early Windrush generation pioneers, meeting on the ship to London in about 1952, spending a decade in the pursuit of betterment then returning to a newly independent Jamaica in 1962,” Watson said.
“My father would say that he is a ‘ship with a set rudder’ and this monument has helped me to plot the course he and others traversed as they embarked on a mission of self-advancement while rebuilding a Britain that they somewhat regarded as their motherland, and you recognize the challenges they faced.”
Watson’s big ambitions
Basil Watson has designed public sculptures and monuments across the world including statues of Martin Luther King Jr, Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Merlene Ottey, among others.
Though a longtime resident of the United States, Watson is the go-to sculptor for major works commissioned by the Jamaican government. He said it’s a satisfying feeling to have garnered this much success in his career so far.
“When I started building a career, one of my main objectives was to see how I could get a sculpture in the public domain. Now I have quite a bit and it’s really satisfying and inspiring. It’s a great feeling to know that you’re contributing to the public dialogue,” he said in an interview with Caribbean National Weekly.
He said he wants to continue his work to create meaningful pieces across the diaspora.
“Although I now work outside of Jamaica, I’ve always wanted to carry my ‘Jamaicaness’ further into the world and diaspora,” he said.
Asked what else Watson would like to achieve, he said his one big goal is to create a national monument that is known and recognized internationally.
“My bucket list is far from complete. I want to create a good studio and art center and I want to create works on the scale of the Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, or the Eiffel Tower. Something really internationally iconic,” he said.
“I could put a piece like that maybe in Jamaica … that is where my ambitions stretch to. It doesn’t get much bigger than that,” Watson told CNW.
In 2022, Basil Watson received the keys to Broward County. He is also a recipient of the Order of Distinction in the Commander class, Jamaica’s fifth-highest honor.
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