Watch the Living Fourth Plinth Live
July 12, 2009 by jonathan
Filed under Anglophilia, London, Travel
I wrote a couple months ago about the art project to turn the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square into a living monument, giving people one hour to be a work of art.
Well, it started this week and it’s creating quite the stir. The New York Times Reports:
Trafalgar Square is a place of patriotism and past glory, of dead men posing in perpetuity on enormous pedestals. But on Monday, it became a place where Suren Seneviratne, a 22-year-old disc jockey, stood atop a 26-foot-high plinth, wearing a homemade panda costume and hyperkinetically talking on the phone.
His remarks may not have been profound — “I’m on the plinth!” he informed one caller, in an exchange caught by the microphone he was wearing — but Mr. Seneviratne was making art. He was the seventh participant in “One & Other,” a grand project that is meant to stretch the boundaries of sculpture by placing 2,400 people on the square’s usually vacant fourth plinth, for an hour apiece, from now through Oct. 6.
“This is not about privilege, not about power, not about war or honoring the dead,” said the artist, Antony Gormley. “It’s about celebrating the living.”
London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, had a different take: “It’s a triumphant meditation on the themes of fame and glory,” he declared. “My friends, someday your plinth will come.”
Read the Rest of the New York Times Article by Sarah Lyall here.
Luckily for the Anglophiles of the world who can’t make it to witness this unique show of art, the wonders of the internet have come to our rescue. You can watch the Fourth plinth, live on streaming video on the official website.
If anything it’s worth watching for the lovely summer views of Trafalgar Square.
Author Info - Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile with an obsession for Britain that borders on psychosis. He keeps Anglotopia running in his spare time, always dreaming of his next trip to England, wishing he lived there - specifically Dorset - and is always trying to figure out a way to move to England. It will happen one day. Keep up with him on Twitter here. Read more from this author
