Golden Boy and Blue Cock Dominate Trafalgar Square

The most famous London square will host the statues of a golden boy and a blue cock in the next two years

London’s Trafalgar Square is not only the most famous square of the British capital, but is also an inevitable tourist attraction, and thus one of the most famous squares in the world. Four lions guard the square centre (Nelson’s Column) and four plinths stand in the corners of the square.

Tree of the plinths have statues, original monuments of historical figures made at the end of the 19^th century, while the fourth plinth, without a permanent statue, has in the last few years become rather an attractive place for art projects of various kinds.

Although in 1841 Sir Charles Barry designed a sculpture of a rider for the fourth column, the sculpture, due to the lack of money, was never placed. One hundred and fifty years later, or in 1998 to be exact, RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) commissioned three contemporary artist, Mark Wallinger, Bill Woodrow, and Rachel Whiteread, to design their sculptures that would be placed on the Trafalgar Square fourth plinth. This interesting art venture received a lot of attention from the public so the Mayor’s Office started the Fourth Plinth Commission project in 2005 as a competition for an art installation that would be placed at the very attractive position. Since then, this exhibition place that any artist would envy, has seen the work of Antony Gormley, Thomas Schütte and Marc Quinn, while the fourth plinth is currently home to the British-Nigerian artist Yink Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle.

*Marc Quinn – Alison Lapper Pregnant *Thomas Schütte – Model for a Hotel

*Antony Gormley – One & Other,  click here for more

*Yinka Shonibaree – Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, click here for more

Earlier this year the Fourth Plinth Commission has asked six internationally acclaimed artists to offer their concepts of the next year’s big sculpture. Authors’ concepts came in scale models and were subjected to public scrutiny. Then, London mayor Boris Johnson announced the winners of the 2012/2013 Fourth Plinth Commission: Elmgreen & Dragset and Katharina Fritsch.

*Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 * Hahn / Cock

Visual artists Elmgreen & Dragset are the authors of the Powerless Structure, Fig. 101, an installation of a golden boy on a rocking horse, set to be placed on Trafalgar Square in the  Olympic year of 2012. The duo are two Scandinavian artists, Michael Elmgreen from Denmark and Ingar Dragset from Norway, who live and work in Berlin. Their work shows wit and subversive humor tinged with criticism of society at large.

*2012. award – Elmgreen & Dragset – Powerless Structures, Fig. 101

Katharina Fritsch is a contemporary German artist whose blue cock, the Hahn/Cock sculpture, will be placed on Trafalgar Square in 2013. Fritsch is actually known for her work showing oversized intensely colored animal sculptures.

*2013. award – Katharina Fritsch – Hahn / Cock

Scroll down to view other finalists, while you can click here for more information on their work, the winning sculptures, and other details of the Fourth Plinth Commission.

*Brian Griffiths * Mariele Neudecker *Hew Locke *Allora & Calzadilla