A sweet potato island; a hollow, lifesized person on a horse cast in slime-green resin; and a golden bronze sculpture of a woman whose features have been amalgamated are among the shortlisted ideas for the next fourth plinth commission in Trafalgar Square.
Organisers of the contemporary art installation announced on Monday seven shortlisted artists for the project: Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Gabriel Chaile, Ruth Ewan, Thomas J Price, Veronica Ryan, Tschabalala Self and Andra Ursuţa.
Models of their proposals have gone on display at the National Gallery and online, which the public have been encouraged to comment on.
The proposal made by Ryan, a Turner-prize winner, is called Sweet Potatoes and Yams are Not the Same. It presents a sweet potato island, building on Ryan’s practice of using everyday objects, particularly foods. The humble potato, which originated in Peru, has travelled all around the world and is meant to represent the global conversations that happen in Trafalgar Square, central London.
Price’s proposal, Ancient Feelings, is a monumental golden bronze sculpture depicting a fictional woman whose features have been amalgamated from a range of historic sources, creating a collective community portrait.
Lady in Blue, by Self, pays homage to a young, metropolitan woman of colour, inspired by a desire to bring a contemporary “everywoman” to Trafalgar Square. Made from bronze, the sculpture would be patinated with lapis lazuli blue, a rare and refined pigment that has been used since antiquity.
The Smile You Send Returns to You, by Burman, tells of her father’s voyage to the UK from India on board MS Batory. At the centre of the sculpture is her father’s ice-cream van, the Rocket, which is a recurring motif in the artist’s work.
Chaile’s proposal, Hornero, is a celebration of the behaviour of the Rufous hornero bird, a national emblem of Argentina. The bird is known for building homes on high surfaces such as light poles and monuments, and Chaile’s sculpture would mimic the shape of the nest, which resembles an old wood-burning oven.
Believe in Discontent, by Ewan, takes its title from words by the suffragist Charlotte Despard, who addressed many crowds in Trafalgar Square.
Modelled on a mass-produced ornament of a black cat, it is meant to challenge the hierarchy of sculpture versus ornament in public space and reflect on the link between Trafalgar Square and the history of social change, particularly the women from the suffrage movement, who were insultingly portrayed as cats in the media.
Untitled, by Ursuţa, presents a hollow, lifesized figure on a horse covered in a shroud and cast in a slime-green resin, which is meant to embody multiple histories of public sculpture and commemoration at a time when there is increasing debate about the use of public space.
The two winning ideas will be announced in March and installed on the fourth plinth in 2026 and 2028 respectively. They will follow the incumbent Samson Kambalu’s Antelope, a sculpture of the preacher John Chilembwe, who was killed in an anti-colonialist uprising in what was then Nyasaland, now Malawi.
The next sculpture on the plinth has already been announced as Improntas (Imprints) by Teresa Margolles, which will be installed this September.
Margolles’s work, made up of plaster casts of the faces of hundreds of trans people, will be arranged around the plinth in the form of a tzompantli, a skull rack from Mesoamerican civilisations. The work will begin to naturally erode whilst on the Fourth Plinth, with the detail of the faces slowly fading as the plaster is exposed to the weather. It is a tribute to a transgender woman called Karla who was murdered in Mexico in 2016.
Justine Simons, City Hall’s deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries, said: “The fourth plinth is renowned across the globe for bringing world-class contemporary art to the heart of London. I’m delighted that our shortlisted artists have provided such thought provoking pieces. For 25 years the sculptures on the fourth plinth have sparked interest and debate – bringing out the art critic in everybody.”
Gabriele Finaldi, the director of the National Gallery, said it was “important that we find ways to encourage the public to look at and become interested in art, whether it’s the great pictures in our museums or new art in public spaces, and I would encourage the public to have their say on these exciting proposals.”
The first fourth plinth commission, Ecce Homo by Mark Wallinger, was unveiled in 1999, and 14 works have been displayed on the site to date.
Last year, the artist Rachel Whiteread called for an end to the programme amid evidence of the difficulty artists faced in finding a permanent home for their work.
