Cathy's Art Diary

Touching new sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square by Teresa Margolles. I say touching as it is made up of the plaster casts of faces of trans people from the UK and the artists home country of Mexico. From a distance they create a pleasing shape that compliments the Plinth. Close up they look out at you and seem to watch as you pass despite the fact they are concave. They are arranged to resemble a Mexican tzompantli or pile of skulls. I like the idea that, being made of plaster, it is planned that they will weather and potentially disappear over the course of their two year display but do worry what they might look like by that point. Reading the website it says the artist did every cast herself talking to the sitters for the couple of hours it took about their experiences. It would be wonderful to have an accompanying book of those stories. After living with them for two years I think we will want to know more. I’m always intrigued by the sculptures on the Pli...

Stunning sculpture trail in Trafalgar Square of painted globes by different artists exploring the Slave Trade and its effects. These globes had been shown around the world in small trails but all 98 were brought together in the square for two days. There were some wonderful pieces with interesting art but the bulk of the images was the most powerful thing. A lot of artists were there chatting and people were really responding to the work. It was particularly moving to have them outside the National Gallery and they set up interesting dialogues between the architecture around them, each other and the current Forth Plinth sculpture. I was stunned by GE’s “When Colours Collide” which from a distance looked like it had a mirrored surface but when you got close you realised   it was painted. I loved Joshua Donkor’s “Ancestral Foundations” with beautiful portraits and QR codes to recordings of the sitters. My favourite was Alison Turner’s “At the Hands of The Enslaved, Our Societ...

Effective sculpture on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square by Samson Kambalu. I’m always excited to see the new installations on the Fourth Plinth and this is a surprisingly effective one. I’d not liked it in the exhibition of shortlisted works but scaled up and looked at properly from below and from many angles it works really well in the space. It restages a photograph of Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe and European missionary John Chorley taken in 1914 at the opening of Chilembwe’s new church in Nyasaland, now Malawi. Chilembwe has his hat on, defying the colonial rule that forbade Africans from wearing hats in front of white people. A year later, he led an uprising against colonial rule.   Chilembwe was killed and his church was destroyed by the colonial police. In making the figure of Chilembwe larger Kambala elevates the man and his story and makes a comment on underrepresented figures in the history of Colonial Africa. However it is clever in that...

Free outdoor exhibition in Trafalgar Square of reproductions of the pictures which were most viewed online from the National Gallery’s collections in lockdown. The pictures are shown as life sized replicas with good notes about them however sadly people seemed to be using the installation as extra seating rather than looking at the pictures. It’s a shame as it’s a good way of trying to entice people into the gallery however I fear the need to book might put off anyone who spontaneously decided to try. Alongside the exhibition the gallery was running art sessions nearby with a crowd of easels set up and all occupied by people   working on a variety of pictures. Some drew the view across the square but others worked from their imaginations and I spotted a skull. It was nice to see children and adults working together. Sketch on the Square ended 31 August 2021 Paintings display ends 2 September 2021

Funky new public sculpture on the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square by Heather Phillipson. I always love seeing the new Fourth Plinth works. I hadn’t been convinced by this one when it was in the competition for new ideas back in 2017, thinking it was a bit twee and simple, however in situ I love it. It benefits from being so big and is perfectly proportioned to the plinth. I love the way you can see the ice cream realistically dripping off the base and the hidden weirdness of the fly and drone on the other side. I liked the fact the drone is broadcasting live footage over the web although I couldn’t get it work when I was there. I’m going back to try again so I can wave at myself! It gives the work an immediacy which we’ve not seen from it since the Antony Gormley piece “One & Other”, which I became slightly obsessed with, when members of the public applied to occupy the plinth for an hour. Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Lovely new sculpture on the Forth Plinth in Trafalgar Square by Michael Rakowitz.   It is a recreation of the Lamassu, a winged bull and protective deity that stood at the entrance to Nergal Gate of Nineveh, near modern day Mosul, from c 700 B.C, until it was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. It is part of a larger project to recreate 7000 works looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003 or destroyed at archaeological sites across the country in the aftermath of the war.   Rakowitz has decorated it with empty Iraqi date syrup cans to represent an industry destroyed by the war and to mirror the fact that the reliefs on the base of Nelson’s Column are made from canons salvaged from the wreck of a ship lost at the Battle of Trafalgar.   I think this is one of the more successful works on the plinth. It fits it well and the colours mirror the colours of the square around it. It is also an important statement to shop a work of art destroyed by war outside our own National Gal...

The latest installation on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is a large, elongated thumbs up by David Shrigley. I popped to see it on the day it was unveiled and was a bit underwhelmed by it however it has bedded in well and is a nice edition. It fits the space well and the thumb is quite striking. The colour blends it in with the other statues and the shape mirrors Nelson’s Column and lines up well with it.   You have to love the British public who have voted for a big blue cock and phallic shaped thumb to sit in this spot in recent years. Boaty McBoatface I cry!   I don’t think it is a particularly profound piece and I have preferred others, but I think I can live with it! Reviews Telegraph Independent Evening Standard  

A large sculpture of two white fingers by Revelino which has appeared in Trafalgar Square. This work is great fun and a nice addiction to the square. It’s good to have another contemporary art work alongside the Fourth Plinth. The fingers are huge and made of bronze painted white. They nearly meet in the middle leaving a handy space for people to have their photograph taken. In fact that becomes a bit annoying as it’s impossible to get a good photo of them without some random stranger in the middle and there is a queue of people waiting their turn to try! Review Evening Standard  

The fabulous new sculpture on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square by Hans Haacke. I voted it for it in the competition a year or so ago and now it’s up I love it! The scale works really well on the plinth and I like the nod to the idea that it was designed for a man on a horse. I was worried that the ribbon on its leg with a feed from the Stock Exchange might not work but it does and it is lovely to have that little bit of colour and movement on it. It works well in daylight and at night. I’m not hearing it being talked about as much as the big blue cock on the bus as I pass though. I think it may not be quite so accessible plus being bronze, it doesn’t stand out quite so much so I think passersby who aren’t looking for it don’t see it which is a shame. I am looking forward to seeing it in all lights over the next year or so and seeing how it changes in different conditions. Review Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Moving sculpture/installation in Trafalgar Square by Mark Humphrey to promote the British Legion campaign of the same name. It will tour Britain over the next four years. The work consisted of a statue of a soldier holding an armful of poppies in a long glass pointed box. At regular intervals air blew round the box blowing hundreds of loose poppy petals around him. I liked the fact the poppy petals were proper British Legion ones with the stalk and black centre removed. I thought this was a very simple and moving idea and I would love to see it in other spaces and it travels around the country.      

An installation in Trafalgar Square as part of London Design Week. This consisted of four sheds/rooms by different designers with the brief of “What makes a house a home?”. My favourite was Jasper Morrison’s “Pigeon Fancier’s House”   with a pine finish and a big window from which to watch birds to watch birds. This was witty but was also a room you could live in. Raw Edges’ interior with the ability to move walls to create different spaces at different times was an interesting idea. If you only use the bathroom at certain times of day why does it take up so much space? Just slide the wall over to make enough room to use the wash basin or the shower, the slide it back again for a bigger living space!   The other two pieces were more like installations than rooms you could actually live in.  

The latest public sculpture on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square by Katharina Fritsch.   I am not too sure what its saying and have read the reviews which talk about it being a masculine statement about French pride in a square which commemorates a French defeat. I just know I like it! I wasn’t sure about it in the exhibition which showed the contenders but as with the boy on the rocking horse I was wrong. Once produced on this enormous scale and when you see the detail and almost feel the colour it is wonderful!   I saw in on a lovely sunny day with the blue zinging off a blue shy but look forward to seeing how it works on darker days.   Only the British though could erect a big innuendo in one of its main squares! Reviews Guardian Telegraph  

The latest sculpture to be added to the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. I must admit I was dubious about this one and did not vote for it in the original exhibition . However now it is up I really like it. I think it helps that I first saw it on a sunny day so the bronze made a lovely blocked contrast to the sky. The proportions work well so it imitates the corresponding general on a horse on the other plinth well. I assume it is saying something about innocence and war but I’m not too sure or too convinced but it works well as a piece of public sculpture. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph

For a week there is a giant chess set in Trafalgar Square set up as the centre piece for the London Design Festival . Next week chess masters will play it in the morning and the public in the afternoon. Designed by Spanish designer, Jaime Hayón, the pieces represent the domes, towers and spires of iconic London buildings. Review Times