Elmgreen & Dragset’s Fourth Plinth, in London’s Trafalgar Square
![It is a popular statue](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XiDZUSBWaKbdQhxiRGhuHg-415-80.jpg)
The weather was kind yesterday in Trafalgar Square as a new artwork by Danish artists (and long-term Wallpaper* collaborators) Elmgreen & Dragset was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth. The 4m-high bronze boy on a rocking horse is a witty and deliberate contrast to the statue of King George IV on the opposite plinth.
’I think we were chosen because so much of our work involves the use of space, and Trafalgar Square is such an important place in London,’ says Ingar Dragset. He and Michael Elmgreen work in the capital but are based in Berlin (their home-cum-studio featured in W*116). The piece, officially named ’Powerless Structures, Fig. 101’, ’is not about victory and defeat but expectation and change,’ Dragset adds.
Elmgreen & Dragset - who we recently teamed up with for our September fashion story - are no strangers to monarchy-inspired monuments. Elmgreen hails from Denmark, which has its share of regal pomp and ceremony. ’Of course, we are bringing some humour, but we also wanted to bring a human, non-powerful element to the square,’ they say.
The artists also refer to the history of the plinth, which was built in 1841 for an equestrian statue of King William IV, which was never installed. Now, 170 years later, the plinth gets its monument, albeit one of an innocent anti-hero.
More than any other public artwork in London, The Fourth Plinth - set up as an art project in 1998, and supported by Louis Vuitton and Alixpartners - provokes heated discussions and transforms every Londoner into an art critic. ’Golden Boy,’ as the statue has been dubbed, is sure to have its fans and detractors. Ironically (or perhaps deliberately, in this Olympic year), it is supposed to show that there is more to life than winning, and that the simple things in life must also be celebrated.
For Elmgreen & Dragset, having Joanna Lumley at the unveiling of their sculpture was a highlight. ’She absolutely lights up a room,’ says Elmgreen. The duo met her through Drama Queens, a play they wrote and performed at the Old Vic in 2008.
The Golden Boy follows Yinka Shonibare’s sculpture of Nelson’s Ship in A bottle, and will be replaced next year by German artist Katharina Fritsch’s sculpture of a giant blue cockerel.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
The 4m-high bronze sculpture has been dubbed the 'Golden Boy'
Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen, in their studio
The making of Elmgreen & Dragset's sculpture for the Fourth Plinth
The unveiling in Trafalgar Square
The 'Golden Boy' in all his glory
Emma O'Kelly is a freelance journalist and author based in London. Her books include Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat and she is currently working on a UK guide to wild saunas, due to be published in 2025.
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
‘I am almost an anti-sculptor’: Dominique White on her Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize show
The artist mines the ocean to explore Afrofuturism in ‘Deadweight’, opening at London’s Whitechapel and detailed in a new film
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Remembering Rusty Egan's Blitz Club: a place to 'avoid the mob and the homophobes', where the New Romantics were born
As he releases new vinyl boxset, 'Blitzed!', Wallpaper* meets DJ Rusty Egan to talk about London's scene-building Blitz club – the antidote to the late 70s punk scene and a hot-bed of experimental fashion
By Craig McLean Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
The body, pleasure and play: Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland united in London
Tom of Finland’s homoeroticism meets Beryl Cook’s female-oriented camp as Studio Voltaire unites work by the two artists in a London exhibition
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Zanele Muholi celebrates South Africa’s Black LGBTI communities in LA and London
Zanele Muholi's portraits and sculptures are currently on show at Southern Guild Los Angeles and the Tate Modern, London
By Hannah Silver Published