Artist：Multiple artists (See other design professionals involved below)
Date： 1999 – ongoing
Location：Trafalgar Square, London, UK
Media/Type：Ongoing series of temporary commissions, the majority of which are sculptural by significant contemporary artists.
Commissioner：The Fourth Plinth Commission Group on behalf of the Mayor of London
Researcher： Hannah Pierce
Trafalgar Square is a central London landmark and a major tourist attraction. The monument and sculpture both have a unique sense of cultural heritage. Standing in the northeast corner of London’s Trafalgar Square, the Fourth Plinth was built in 1841 as a pedestal for an equestrian statue of William IV. It remained unoccupied for 150 years. But for the last 13 years, the Fourth Plinth has regularly featured new artworks resulting from a rolling programme of commissions. The scheme was initiated in 1998 by the Royal Society.
The first was Mark Wallinger’s “Ecce Homo”, which was exhibited over the millennium. The only commission that did not present a sculptural object was Gormley’s “One & Other”. Instead, it involved 2400 people exhibiting themselves over the course of 100 days. The living monument took over the plinth from July 6 to October 14, 2009, and featured almost 35,000 participants. Wallinger’s idea was to place one volunteer on the plinth for one hour at a time and allow them to use that hour to express themselves however they saw fit. This gave ordinary people the chance to become part of an art work. Additionally, Yinka Shonibare’s sculpture “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle” was on exhibit through 2011 and it was the first commission to relate directly to the history of Trafalgar Square. |
