Thumbs up to David Shrigley’s fabulously feel-bad fourth plinth

David Shrigley is a mordant and rueful artist. I have a postcard by him that says DEATH in letters that get smaller from left to right, pithily expressing our doom as a diminishing scribble. His take on existence veers between the grimly comic and the cynically absurdist. It is therefore hard to take him entirely […]

David Shrigley Fourth Plinth Unveiling Announced By Sadiq Khan’s Office

David Shrigley the Turner Prize nominated artist unveils his new commission for the Fourth Plinth titled, ‘Really Good‘ on Thursday 29 September 2016. The work was commissioned by the Mayor of London as part of the Fourth Plinth Programme, Really Good is the eleventh sculpture to stand on Trafalgar Square’s celebrated plinth, and will be the first major public art commission to […]

Hans Haacke on “Gift Horse,” Gulf Labor, and Artist Resale Royalties

Early last March, London’s Conservative mayor Boris Johnson unveiled Hans Haacke’s “Gift Horse,” the tenth commission installed on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. Described on the Greater London Authority’s website as a rumination on the “link[s] between power, money, and history,” “Gift Horse” consists of a bronze horse skeleton and a live electronic ticker of the […]

Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth to show giant thumbs up and horse skeleton

David Shrigley admits it’s ridiculous to claim that a 10-metre-high thumbs up in Trafalgar Square will improve society, the economy and the weather – but he has to believe it. “As an artist you have to feel your art makes the world a better place and you have to believe that quite sincerely, otherwise why […]