Exhibits for fourth plinth are chosen

Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare chosen for Fourth Plinth

Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare, MBE were announced today by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, as the winning artists of the next two commissions for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Antony Gormley’s proposal One and Other is that the Fourth Plinth is occupied for 100 consecutive days, 24 hours a day, by members of the public who have volunteered to stand on it for an hour at a time. Over this period it is estimated that 2,400 people would take part. Antony Gormley said: 'Through elevation onto the plinth and removal from common ground’ the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol and allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary society.' The project will now enter its development phase during which delivery and project management details will be finalised.

Yinka Shonibare’s proposal Nelson's Ship in a Bottle is a scale replica of Nelson’s ship, HMS Victory, in a giant glass bottle with sails made of patterned textiles commonly associated with Africa and bought from Brixton market in London. Shonibare says his piece will reflect the story of multiculturalism in London today: ‘For me it’s a celebration of London’s immense ethnic wealth, giving expression to and honouring the many cultures and ethnicities that are still breathing precious wind into the sails of the UK.’

Boris Johnson said: 'It was obviously a tough decision – all of the shortlisted proposals had their own merits. But I am very excited about the prospect of real people standing on the plinth, in one of the great public square of the world, and I think it is an incredible idea to have a modern depiction of Nelson's boat that will be gazed upon by a statue of the great admiral himself.'

The selection was made by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, which is chaired by Ekow Eshun, Artistic Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, London.

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Antony Gormley

Over the last 25 years Antony Gormley has revitalised the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation, using his own body as subject, tool and material.  Since 1990 he has expanded his concern with the human condition to explore the collective body and the relationship between self and other in large-scale installations like Allotment, Critical Mass, Another Place, Domain Field, and Inside Australia.  His recent work increasingly engages with energy systems, fields and vectors, rather than mass and defined volume, evident in works like Clearing, Blind Light, Firmament and Another Singularity.

 
Antony Gormley’s work has been exhibited extensively, with solo shows throughout the UK in venues such as the Whitechapel, Tate and the Hayward Galleries, the British Museum and White Cube, and internationally at museums including the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Germany. Blind Light, a major solo exhibition of his work, was held at the Hayward Gallery in 2007.

He has participated in major group shows such as the Venice Biennale and the Kassel Documenta 8.   His Field has toured America, Europe and Asia. Angel of the North and, more recently, Quantum Cloud on the Thames in Greenwich, are amongst the most celebrated examples of contemporary British sculpture.   One of his key installations, Another Place, is to remain permanently on display at Crosby Beach, Merseyside. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 and the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999.  In 2007 he was awarded the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture. 

Yinka Shonibare, MBE

Yinka Shonibare, MBE was born in London and moved to Lagos, Nigeria, at the age of three. He returned to London to study Fine Art, first at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London, and then at Goldsmiths College, London, where he received his MFA. Shonibare’s work explores issues of race and class through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and, most recently, film. His signature material is the brightly coloured ‘African’ fabric he buys at Brixton market. Shonibare has exhibited in leading museums worldwide and participated in seminal exhibitions such as: Sensation, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1997); 49th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2001); Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (2002); Double Dress, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, touring; Africa Remix, various venues (2005–6) and Check-List Luanda Pop, African Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). In 2004 Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize. In 2005 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.  In 2008 Shonibare will present a major retrospective solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, which tours to the Brooklyn Museum, New York, in 2009. Yinka Shonibare, MBE, is represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, and James Cohan Gallery, New York.