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Cast your vote for Trafalgar Square’s new monument

Never before has a giant Battenberg cake done battle with a blue cockerel or a musical cash point.

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by Chris Marshall on Aug 19, 2010 at 16:29

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Cast your vote for Trafalgar Square’s new monument

The Battenberg cake, invented to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenburg, has been around for a century and a quarter.

‘I wanted that longevity and also the idea that people had forgotten where it came from,’ said Brian Griffiths, one of the artists competing to have his work shown on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth.

Griffiths said by way of explanation for his giant brick Battenburg: ‘One of the traits of British humour is that we're self-effacing with a touch of melancholy and you can see that in all our post-war sitcoms from Rising Damp to The Office. This has that kind of aspiration and pathos to it.’

His work is one of six that are competing to do on display on the fourth plinth in the centre of London. His competition is:

Sikandar by Hew Locke

A replica of the statue of Field Marshal, Sir George White (1835 – 1912) that stands in Portland Place, but with the addition of horse-brasses, charms, medals, sabres, ex-votos, jewels, Bactrian treasure and Hellenistic masks.

It’s Never Too Late And You Can’t Go Back, by Mariele Neudecker

A fictional mountainscape, if viewed from above it reveals the flipped and reversed shape of Britain, from below the map is the right way around and more familiar.

Untitled (ATM/Organ) by Allora and Calzadilla

Get your cash out from the cashpoint at the plinth and the organ will blast out ‘a range of notes and chords at varying degrees of loudness which will reverberate throughout Trafalgar Square’.

Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 by Elmgreen & Dragset

‘In this portrayal of a boy astride his rocking horse, a child has been elevated to the status of a historical hero, though there is not yet a history to commemorate – only a future to hope for.’

‘Instead of acknowledging the heroism of the powerful, Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 celebrates the heroism of growing up.’ Or ‘gold is a little chav’ as a couple of people commenting on the Fourth Plinth website observed.

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11 comments so far. Why not have your say?

Churchill. There would be no Trafalgar Square if the Nazis had won

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Tony blair but it would be legal to throw rotten eggs at it.

And Churchi similarly for taking the UK into a war we had no chance of winning.

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Why are we paying for another waste of space when this country will not look after its citizens properly.

the government say we must cut back then they carry on wasting our money.

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I find all of these distasteful and agree totally that limited funds should not be wasted on items which have neither any place in Trafalgar Square or deserving of the description of being "art".

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If it has now been decided to retain the 4th plinth as a venue for temporary art then why should the public get involved in the process......just get on with it!

I believe we should have had the b****s to choose a permanent statue LONG ago, and then these people could exhibit conventionally, if they can get funding.

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Why not a giant (it would have to be) display showing our National deficit. It could cheer whenever it reduces or boo when it increases. well, it is as sensible as the other suggestions!

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Harry Mount at the Telegraph reckons we should have a Princess Diana statue on the fourth plinth:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harrymount/100046173/there-should-be-a-princess-diana-statue-on-the-fourth-plinth-in-trafalgar-square/

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None of them is particularly inspiring but 'It's never too late..." has the merit of jutting out so you could shelter from the rain under it.

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A very good idea put forward by Edward Hicks.

Perhaps we could have an electronic debt clock (like the one in New York) incorporated into the Battenbugh Cake, with the golden boy mounted on the top. A motor drive could be used so that his horse rocks back and forth whenever certain digital milestones are passed. All powered by solar panels of course.

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What about a pile of manure to represent what Britain has become and to pay 'tribute' to the human manure that represents the obsession with political correctness, global warming, health and safety, the tidal wave of immigration, public sector non-jobs and all the other lunatic ideas that manifest themselves in modern Britain.

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Mrs Helena Newton

Aug 23, 2010 at 12:19

I find all the options either hideous (Battenberg), pretentious (It's Never too Late, Sikandar and Untitled) or inappropriate AND pretentious, at least in its title - Powerless Structures.

Trafalgar Square has a monument commemorating Britain's former military prowess, but has over the past ten years or so been the scene of communal arts events and of demonstrations against war. I'd like to see a permanent artwork on the fourth plinth

which symbolises peace and community spirit which would put Nelson's column in the shade.

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