The Fourth Plinth Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square It

The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square • It is one of the most famous arena’s in the western world • It is what we might term as “People’s Place” • There a number of commemorative statues and sculpture in the square • It was built in 1840 • It has a ‘plinth’ or a platform on each of its four corners. Three of them have decorated military officers

• The ‘Fourth Plinth’ was built in 1841 • It remained unused for more that 150 years • For a long time a debate went on as to what should be built on the ‘Fourth Plinth’ • It was later decided that various Artist’s will be allowed to display their work for a certain period of time

Mark Quinn

• Quinn’s sculpture’s painting’s and drawing’s often deal with the distanced relationship we have with our bodies • His work talks about the conflict between natural and cultural idea about our bodies has a grip on the contemporary psyche

• Mark Quinn was one of the many Artist’s who displayed his work on the Fourth Plinth. • He is a British Artist born on 8 th jan 1964 • He is known for “Alison Lapper Pregnant‘s” sculpture which is on the ‘Fourth Plinth’

Some of Quinn’s famous work

“Garden”

In his very famous work ‘Garden’ Quinn managed to collect over 1000 flowers in full bloom which otherwise cannot grow at the same time and sank them in twenty five tons of liquid silicone maintained at constant temprature of -80 degrees Celsius. His garden is frozen but not frosty. Quinn froze the flowers in full bloom as they make a pure image when otherwise in reality their matter is dead.

“Self”

“Self” is a self portrait project where Quinn used his own frozen blood. He makes one self portrait using his own blood every five years to sort of record his own life.

Mark Quinn’s famous sculpture of Alison Lapper on The Fourth Plinth

He made a series of sculptures of people born with no arms or limbs missing or have had them amputated. Alison Llapper is one of his most famous sculpture as it was on The Fourth Plinth and it stirred quite a controversy as it was a sculpture of a naked and pregnant woman with missing arms and truncated limbs. Quinn challenges the traditionally accepted idea of aesthetics. She is naked and pregnant because Quinn is trying to show every woman through that sculpture.

The sculpture is made of marble and is purplish in colour. It is 35 ft tall. People criticised it and said it looked out of place. But Alison Lapper an artist herself who went through a rough journey from being abandoned when she was a week old to standing rightfully tall on The Fourth Plinth among the three soldiers is a work about courage, beauty and defiance.