Fourth Plinth 2014

Fourth Plinth Commission 2014

Exhibition of Proposals for the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London, to be exhibited 2014

St Martin-in-the-Fields 25^th September to 17^th November 2013   

Marcus Coates has proposed to place a large replica of ‘The Eagle’, a rocky outcrop situated in Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire on the plinth; Trafalgar Square is almost entirely fashioned from stone, sourced from all over Britain and manipulated into buildings, pillars and statues by the will of architects, designers and sculptors. Marcus Coates plans to contrast these symbols of rational progress with a huge replica of a gritstone outcrop created hundreds of millions of years ago in Yorkshire by the natural forces of ice, wind and rain. Its form suggests a face or a bird, as we automatically try to make sense of the organic shapes that emerge and retreat as we walk around it, and invest it with human qualities or mythical powers. It would be a monument to non-human creativity and a totem of timeless, irrepressible powers.

Coates makes videos, performances and installations that are in turn sublime and humorous, asking audiences and participants to explore their imaginations in ways they might not ordinarily. Communing with animal and bird spirits, emulating their movements or transmitting their calls and cries, the artist attempts to answer questions on how we can live in urban societies. His observations might strike a chord with his audiences through metaphor, or through the sheer desire to make sense of a disordered universe.

David Shigley’s design, Really Good, is a 10-metre-high thumbs-up, cast in the same dark patina as the other statues in the square; A giant hand in a thumbs-up gesture, and with a really long thumb at that, must mean that something, somewhere, is really good. But what is that something and where is it? Is it Trafalgar Square? Or all of London? Or maybe the artwork itself? And if it’s so good, why is that? Who says so? And will we agree?

Really Good would be cast in bronze with the same dark patina as the other statues in the Square, the comic extension of the thumb bringing it up to ten metres in height. Shrigley’s ambition is that this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy; that things considered ‘bad’, such as the economy, the weather and society, will benefit from a change of consensus towards positivity.

Shrigley’s daily tirade of satirical vignettes takes the British tradition of satire into three and four dimensions. In his drawings and animations protagonists express their dark impulses and are subject to the violence and irrationality of life, while his sculptures are often jokes in 3D form, reflecting the absurdity of contemporary society.

Hans Haacke has created a skeletal, riderless horse that will display the live ticker of the London Stock Exchange on an electric ribbon tied to its leg; Instead of the statue of William III astride a horse, as originally planned for the empty plinth, Hans Haacke proposes a skeleton of a riderless, strutting horse. Tied to the horse’s front leg is an electronic ribbon which displays live the ticker of the London Stock Exchange. The horse is derived from an etching by George Stubbs, whose studies of equine anatomy were published the year after the birth of the reputedly decadent king, whose statue was abandoned due to a lack of funds. Haacke’s proposal makes visible a number of ordinarily hidden substructures, tied up with a bow as if a gift to all.

Haacke’s early work employed physical and organic processes, such as condensation, in what he called ‘systems’, until his focus shifted to the socio-political field of equally interdependent dynamics. For the last four decades Haacke has been examining relationships between art, power and money, and has addressed issues of free expression and civic responsibilities in democratic societies. Haacke’s practice is difficult to categorise, moving from object to image to text, from painting to photography, at times of a provocative nature.

Liliane Lijn’s proposal shows two identical kinetic cones made of brushed anodised aluminium engaged in a mesmerising dance; Rather than one imposing sculptural object, Liliane Lijn’s proposal The Dance features the complex changing relation between two apparently identical objects. The cone is a ubiquitous abstract form that occurs in mathematical, mythical and astronomical systems. Here the cones also relate to the spire of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, while their gleaming metallic surfaces recall the machinery of space travel.  Once The Dance begins, formal geometry gives way to sensual movement and we become mesmerised by the energy of the interaction.

The shifting shapes and interactions of The Dance are an extension of Lijn’s interest in combining energy and matter, language and light. Her small and large-scale kinetic installations often use technologies such as laser cutting, programmable electronics and aerogel, a material used by NASA to capture stardust. Lijn’s Poemcons and Poem Machines, rotating cones and drums bearing evocative words and phrases, offer tantalising fragments of meaning and insight, while ultimately falling apart in the mind.

Ugo Rondinone’s Moon Mask is an aluminium, abstract sentinel facing out over the square; Ugo Rondinone’s MOON MASK, modelled expressively by hand, enlarged, cast in aluminium, and fixed to a pole, would be an abstract sentinel facing out over the square. MOON MASK seemingly refers to many visual traditions – perhaps the folk art of an ancient clan or early 20^th century Cubism, which was itself influenced by African tribal masks – and yet it makes no specific claims for its origin. The eventual work would inspire free association, its three window-like apertures suggesting portals through which cultural references and individual emotions can tumble at will.

Rondinone’s preoccupation with time - at the cosmic scale as well as that of art history and everyday experience - often finds form in abstract imagery intended to connect the sublime with the everyday. His optically shimmering mandala paintings, for example, re-use the geometric Buddhist symbol for eternity. Elsewhere figures made from stacked, roughly hewn cubes of rock seem to express an ancient sense of awe in the face of nature, while also offering a range of contemporary readings from the psychological to the comical.

Mark Leckey has designed a creature made of amalgamated elements of the permanent statues in Trafalgar Square, including details from the statues of James II, Admiral Jellicoe, the water fountain, and the Fourth Plinth itself.  Mark Leckey has riffed on elements traditionally found carved in marble or cast in bronze, including scrolls, coats of arms and a sword in its scabbard for Larger Squat Afar (an anagram of Trafalgar Square). 
“I believe the proposal reflects how we now approach the world in the 21^st century. Because of current technology, objects and artefacts are no longer these fixed, permanent things. Instead we look at any sculpture, object or image and ask, what can I do with that? How can I change it to suit my desires?”

Larger Squat Afar is an anagram of ‘Trafalgar Square’, and Mark Leckey’s chimera is itself an amalgam of elements lifted from all the statues found in the square. Details of James II, the water fountain, Admiral Jellicoe and the plinth itself are enmeshed into a single figure, which, while appearing absurd illustrates the compound history of both people and place. Fabricated using 3D laser scanning and printing technology, Larger Squat Afar embodies the power of the digital to overcome the physical and to fulfill the more monstrous capacities of the human imagination.

Leckey frequently looks to the mediated nature of public and private environments, in which imagery is employed to transcend the mundane. Collage and animation techniques are used in videos and sculptures, where the hidden is made explicit, desires are expressed and obscure personal narratives are revealed. It is digital platforms, above all else, that signal the contemporary for Leckey, where even the inanimate object can appear to communicate to us at will.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Marcus Coates

Born 1968 in London. Lives and works in London.

Marcus Coates makes videos, performances and installations that attempt to answer questions about how we live in urban societies. He has had recent solo exhibitions at South Alberta Gallery, Canada (2012); and Milton Keynes Gallery (2010). Recent public art projects include Create London (2013) and Vision Quest: a ritual for Elephant & Castle (2012). Coates has also performed at Port Eliot Festival, Cornwall; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Kunsthalle Zurich; Barbican Art Gallery, London; and Hayward Gallery, London.

Hans Haacke

Born 1936 in Cologne. Lives and works in New York.

For the last four decades Hans Haacke has been examining the relationships between art, power and money, and has addressed issues of free expression and civic responsibilities in democratic societies in his work. He works in many different mediums including painting, photography and written text. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2012); MIT List Visual Arts Centre, Cambridge, MA (2011); X-Initiative, New York (2009); and Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2006). Haacke’s work has been included in four Documentas and numerous biennials around the world. He shared a Golden Lion Award with Nam June Paik for the best pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennale (1993), and in 2000 he unveiled a permanent installation in the Reichstag, Berlin.

Mark Leckey

Born 1964 in Birkenhead. Lives and works in London.

Mark Leckey’s work explores the mediated nature of public and private environments, often working collage and animation techniques into his video and sculptural work. He has had recent solo exhibitions at The Hammer museum, Los Angeles (2013); Banff Centre, Alberta (2012); Serpentine Gallery, London (2011); Abrons Art Centre, New York (2009); and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2008). Leckey curated the Hayward Touring show ‘The universal addressability of dumb things’ (2013) and was awarded the Turner Prize in 2008.

Liliane Lijn

Born 1939 in New York. Lives and works in London.

Internationally exhibited since the 1960s, with works in numerous collections including Tate, the British Museum, and the V&A, and FNAC, Paris, Lijn is best known for her kinetic sculptures and her work with language and light. Recent exhibitions include Light Years at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London (2011); Gallery One, New Visions Centre, Signals, Indica at Tate Britain, London (2012); Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language at MoMA, New York (2012); and Cosmic Dramas, mima, Middlesborough. Recent public commissions include Solar Beacon, a sci-art installation of heliostats on the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge; and Light Pyramid, a beacon for the Queen’s Jubilee, which was commissioned by Park Trust and MK Gallery, Milton Keynes.

David Shrigley

Born 1968 in Macclesfield. Lives and works in Glasgow.

David Shrigley’s work draws on the British tradition of satire, creating drawings, animations and sculptures that reflect the absurdity of contemporary society. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Bradford 1 Gallery (2013); Cornerhouse Gallery (2012), Hayward Gallery, London (2012); Yerba Beuna Centre for the Arts, San Francisco (2012); and Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow (2010). Shrigley’s Sort of Opera: Pass the Spoon was performed at Tramway, Glasgow, and Southbank Centre, London (2011 – 12), and he has been nominated for the Turner Prize 2013. 

Ugo Rondinone 

Born 1964 in Brunnen, Switzerland. Lives and works in New York.

Ugo Rondinone is a mixed-media artist whose work explores themes of fantasy and desire. He has had recent solo exhibitions at M Museum, Leuven (2013); Art Institute of Chicago (2013); Common Guild, Glasgow (2012); Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens (2012); and Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2010). Rondinone has created public commissions for the Rockefeller Plaza, New York; the IMB Building, New York; and Louis Vuitton, Munich. He represented Switzerland in the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007).