This place is suffering from a lack of three things. The first gap, from time to time is filled by a sculpture on the fourth plinth (Anthony Gromley’s One and Others 2009, or the current commission, Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson ship in a bottle 2010) but the other
things lacking are never addressed :
These two things being Nelson’s arm and eye.
Our first ambition is to fill these absences. To do so, every day at noon, Nelson’s arm will play with his eye, snapping it into a pipe network which will encircle the plinth all the way down to the ground. Then, by a slow and visible ascent, it will find its place again, ready for another stroll.
Obviously, Nelson only acts as a trigger here. He is not the main subject.
This sculpture investigates the myths of a society and subsequently its way of responding to this quirky tribute. Moreover, at a time when, hypocritically, the subject of reconcilia-tion is everywhere :
Man and his History
Past and Present
The living and the dead
Technology and Environment
The subversive and the Institutional
At a time when the Art Establishment dubs artists only as rebellious subjects… But are they, really?
This sculpture plays a more modest role in reconciling Trafalgar Square’s two levels: the floor of the National Gallery (Art and Culture) and the floor of the fountain and of the column (common tourism, concerts, podiums), these two levels which are by their very operation like a social metaphor.
Derisory subject, ironic posture? Not so sure !
Tell us what you think on : my-fourth-plinth@the-arm-choice.com