Look up at the latest fourth plinth sculpture and you’ll see ranks of human faces floating in the sky. They are concave receptacles of shadows – and they look so fragile. These inside-out life masks cast in plaster seem destined to be ruined by rain, pollution and pigeon droppings. The artist wants it that way.
Teresa Margolles, from Mexico, is former forensic pathologist who often makes art using the physical traces of the deceased, especially victims of murder. Her sculpture for the fourth plinth takes its form from a gruesome Aztec masterpiece, a 15th-century tower of skulls known as the Huey Tzompantli that was excavated in Mexico City. More than 600 skulls have been found cemented into it, a spectacular reminder of Aztec power and ferocity.
