Plinth Off
Jonathan Jones takes exception with those who insist that One and the Other, Anthony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth art project that involves ordinary Britons–randomly chosen–spending an hour doing whatever they please high above Trafalgar Square, is litmus test of one’s cultural politics. He feels that one can be culturally astute and still not like what Gormley has done there:
The less you look at contemporary art, the more unfamiliar you are with its language and its capacities, and the more likely you are to submit to this second-rate artist’s self-serving rhetoric.Continue Reading
Echoes of Warhol in Trafalgar
Culture Monster’s Christopher Knight takes a little jab at Antony Gormley’s One & the Other but follows his observation that the project is really just another riff on Warhol’s 15-minutes-of-fame dictum with a more important point. Yes, on the Plinth the ordinary Britons are out-matched by the size and scale of the heroic statuary and the grandiose square.
And it’s not especially pretty. I can’t say what it’s like in person, but whenever I tune into the live streaming broadcast of the piece, I can’t help but notice just how, well, how puny Mr. and Ms. Great Britain look up there on that gigantic hunk of stone-block. It’s a scale problem. The plinth was designed for a monumental sculpture, many times larger than life, in a grand public space. A poor bag of ordinary flesh-and-bones just can’t measure up.
Of course, that’s a little bit of the point which Knight may not be willing to countenance. But he is spot on when he identifies the 21st Century leverage of the internet:Continue Reading
Double Standard on Naked Plinthers
The hijinks continue on London’s Fourth Plinth project where Antony Gormley is orchestrating a retinue of ordinary Britons who want to spend an hour atop the heroic Trafalgar Sq. plinth in celebration of the citizenry. The latest twist is the request that a plinther named Simon put on some clothes when he decided to appear naked:
But about five minutes after revealing all, he was told by one of the organisers: ”Simon, you’re going to have to put something on, or they want you down… sorry mate. Some pants or something. Thank you.” The plinther obliged by putting his underpants back on, to boos from the crowd.
The organizers insist the request came from the police. A topless woman who painted with her chest provoked no response as you can see from this clip:Continue Reading
