Six artists have been named in the shortlist to produce the latest in the rolling series of sculptures featured on Trafalgar Square’s empty Fourth Plinth – including British artists David Shrigley, Mark Leckey and Marcus Coates. Competing for time slots in 2015 and 2016, two artists from the shortlist will be selected early next year.  Miniature versions of the proposed works will be on display in nearby church St. Martin-in-the-Fields starting September 25. (more…)

Local Planning Committee the Thorney Island Society has raised objections over the proposed installation of artist Katharina Fritsch’s bright blue cockerel sculpture on London’s Fourth Plinth.  Taking umbrage with the work’s apparent “innappropriate” placement in Trafalgar Square, the group is taking action to prevent its installation. “We cannot see any logical reason for the proposed sculpture to be placed on the fourth plinth. It is unrelated to the context of Trafalgar Square and adds nothing to it but a feeble distraction.”  The group said in a statement. (more…)

The Art Newspaper reports that Nicholas Penny, the director of London’s National Gallery, described the temporarily-installed works by Yinka Shonibare and Elmgreen & Dragset in Trafalgar Square as “antagonistic to the architectural character of the square”, making the plinth like “a stage, which can be used ironically, farcically [and] inappropriately”. (more…)

Elmgreen & Dragset with Joanna Lumley All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

This morning in London the newest commission for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square was officially unveiled. This year’s winning entry is titled Powerless Structures, Fig. 101, by Scandinavian artistic duo Elmgreen & Dragset. The bronze sculpture of a young boy atop a rocking horse stands four meters high, and joins the solemn company of Trafalgar Square’s other large-scale memorial statues—dedicated to King George IV and two famous generals respectively. A gentle pun on the tradition of the equestrian military monument, Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 playfully subverts notions of strength and power, instead celebrating their absence. Unlike most monuments, Elmgreen & Dragset’s child is not intended to commemorate history, but rather symbolizes a hope for the future, a fitting choice for one of London’s most famous public spaces as the city prepares to host the 2012 Olympics this Summer.

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