...original post by Al Magary.      ----Christopher Gray, NYC

 

Trafalgar gets two works for one plinth

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

Telegraph, March 16, 2004

The debate over the vacant fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square
ended last night when Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London,
chose not one but two sculptures for the site.

As his only sop to traditionalists, they will at least stand
there consecutively, not simultaneously. The first to go up,
probably from next spring for 15 months, will be Alison Lapper
Pregnant, a 12ft tall marble statue of a pregnant disabled
woman.

It is, according to its sculptor Marc Quinn, designed to be a
counter-blast to the "phallic" Nelson's Column and a tribute to
femininity and disability in an area of "triumphant male
statuary"...

In the summer of 2006, Alison Lapper will be replaced for a
further 15 months by an architectural model of sheets of Perspex
designed by the German artist Thomas Schutte, and called, with
heavy humour, Hotel For The Birds.

"What pigeons will do to the material is none too clear,"
Schutte has said. His work has been compared to an Airfix model
for adults...

Though the public has frequently called for the site to be used
for statues of famous figures such as the Queen Mother, Nelson
Mandela, or even George Orwell, the Department for Culture and
the Mayor decided in favour of contemporary art....

The Mayor's choices may not be widely approved of. After the
shortlist was announced in December, a poll for the London
paper, the Evening Standard, found that 70 per cent of people
interviewed preferred an empty plinth to any of the six
designs....

more at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/16/nplinth16.xml

Other press comment:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1170291,00.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=501673
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2652197
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004121449,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3511968.stm

BBC news archives:
http://www0.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/fourth_plinth/index.shtml
http://www0.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/features/trafalgar_square/index.shtml

Links:
Fourth Plinth project:
http://www.fourthplinth.co.uk/

"Alison Lapper Pregnant"--Marc Quinn:
http://www.fourthplinth.co.uk/marc_quinn.htm
http://www0.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/fourth_plinth/marc_quinn.shtml

"Hotel for the Birds"--Thomas Schutte:
http://www.fourthplinth.co.uk/thomas_schutte.htm
http://www0.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/fourth_plinth/thomas_schutte.shtml

Trafalgar Square redesign:
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/trafalgar_square/transformation.jsp