We're told that the 4th plinth "has been deliberately kept vacant without a permanent memorial for the past 20 years." "Vacant," but filled with "a succession of temporary artwork installations."
Here's a London Times column by Jawad Iqbal — from last year — complaining about the quality of the temporary art that has occupied the plinth.
Iqbal didn't like larger-than-life depiction of a black African next to a life-size British missionary, chosen, according to the official explanation, because the relative size of the 2 figures "reveal[ed] the hidden narratives of under-represented peoples in the history of the British empire."
He also sniffed at a sculpture made out of "casts of the faces of 850 transgender people... arranged around the plinth in the form of a Mesoamerican skull rack," which the artist expected to deteriorate in the London rain, "leaving a kind of anti-monument behind."
The selection of temporary artwork seems to have turned into something insufficiently uplifting. But now, permanence has arrived in the form of the death of the Queen. We're told there's room on the plinth not just for a sculpture of her, but of her on a horse. When is the last time we've seen a new public sculpture a an eminent figure on a horse?
ADDED: Go here to see some of the 4th plinth sculptures: "These artworks have so far included a bright blue cockerel, a golden rocking horse and even Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle." In 2009, "Every hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days, different people stood on the Fourth Plinth. The 2,400 people who took part were chosen at random. Participants used their time on the plinth as they wished – to perform, to demonstrate or simply reflect."
What was the original idea for the 4th plinth?
The Fourth Plinth was meant to hold a bronze equestrian statue of King William IV by Sir Charles Barry. It was never installed. Some 170 years later, Elmgreen & Dragset completed the process with their unique take on traditional equestrian statues. ‘Powerless Structures, Fig. 101’ was a golden-bronze sculpture of a boy astride his rocking horse. In situ, the child became a historical hero like the other statues in the square. Instead of acknowledging the heroism of the powerful, the work celebrated the heroism of growing up. As yet, for the boy there is no history to commemorate – only a future to hope for.
Does that history of the plinth make it all the more fitting that Queen Elizabeth should be there on a horse? Or are you thinking, now it would be incoherent or offensive to put her there on a horse.
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24 comments:
When I was last in the square in late 2018, there was a large blue chicken on the plinth. I wish I could post pictures here because I snapped a photo it was so hideous.
Shameless. Some people will use any excuse just to say "plinth," a word that usually only turns up as the translation of zócalo.
What’s on the other three? I don’t know. I’m an American.
The heroism of growing up?! Jawad Iqbal doesn't know what the word hero means. Weird for a Times writer but hey.
The pigeons have chosen.
JFK had a temporary eternal flame for a while.
It's wonderful. Put her on the plinth!
In America we joke (and torture our political rivals) by suggesting a fifth face on Rushmore. Here's a recent head of state who genuinely has earned a memorial. Please, yes, let her ride on horseback.
But the statue will need Elizabeth and Horse shooting a bow and arrow.
She should be on that Royal Enfield motorcycle in that famous picture.
The two southern plinths have statues of Major-General Sir Percy Havelock (recaptured Cawnpore during the India Rebellion of 1857) and General Sir Charles Napier (conquered Sind in India). The northern plinths are bigger and one has a statue of King George IV (reigned 1820-1830) on horseback.
"The heroism of growing up?! Jawad Iqbal doesn't know what the word hero means. Weird for a Times writer but hey."
You missed an intervening link. That language is from another website, and is not Iqbal's.
I'd like to see it representing the Queen on her horseback ride with President Reagan. Splody heads all around.
Obviously it's entirely their business, but I wonder if the 4th plinth is really the place of highest honor. Not much royalty around there, and those that are there are kind of nobodies. James II was the last of the male Stuarts, driven out of the country rather than beheaded as his father Charles I had been. He reigned for three years. There's an equestrian statue of Charles I not far away. Once the Hanoverians took over with the support of Parliament, I guess they didn't want to present themselves as usurpers, overthrowing the Stuarts, but as people with a legitimate title based on descent from at least some of the Stuarts.
George III is not far away, and then there's Victoria's uncle, George IV.
If Elizabeth II's main claim to fame is longevity and let us say making the country proud, why not link her closely with Victoria, her great-great grandmother? I believe there are Victoria statues at the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace, in Kensington Gardens in front of Kensington Palace, in Victoria Square, and then at the north end of the Blackfriars Railway Bridge, near the Millenium Bridge.
Elizabeth II's parents are just off the Mall.
She loved horses. I think she would love to have a statue of herself on a horse.
It's a place for Princess Diana.
She loved horses, didn't she?
It seems like she loved animals in general. Horses, corgis, budgies, bees. Although I guess the bees might have been a metaphor.
The Queen is going to sit on a domesticated horse, supposedly born in captivity. Or so may the woke narrative have some people protesting. I can see it now.
She should be astride a giant corgi, sidesaddle if that satisfies propriety.
Nobody's going to top Turkmenistan. No matter how hard the purveyors of pathetic public art struggle to shock.
There's nothing unreasonable about putting Queen Elizabeth on a horse. It would be odd if she had not been such a horseman.
She should be on that Royal Enfield motorcycle in that famous picture.
Right there with you Tim. The modern iron horse.
'Okay, what’s a plinth?'
It's what Mike Tyson calls a plint.
Sculpt her in her beloved, perfectly maintained but ancient Land Rover, if you don't like a horse. Leaves room for depicting the Corgis, too, if you are so inclined.
Trafalgar a great place for a lot of folks to see a statue, but putting it below Lord Nelson with a minor king remembered for his style and sex life, and 2 other 19th Century male figures seems diminishing.
rcocean: "She loved horses. I think she would love to have a statue of herself on a horse."
With some corgis in trail.
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