The Fourth Plinth is Finally Changing

Situated in Trafalgar Square, just to the right of the National Gallery, the Fourth plinth is one of the most famous public art commissions in the world. Launched in 1998, the empty pedestal was originally created as the base of an equestrian monument commemorating William IV. However, when insufficient funds meant that the sculpture was never made, the plinth remained empty in the square for around 150 years. In 1994, the head of the Royal Society of Arts, then chef and restauranteur Prue Leith, wrote a letter to the Evening Standard urging something to be done about the unoccupied plinth. After much public debate, this led to the first Fourth plinth commission in 1998. Since then, a wide range of artwork has been commissioned for the central location, including a giant blue cockerel, a ship in a bottle and a child on a golden rocking horse.

 

If you have visited the area in the past two years, you may have noticed the last commission, Heather Phillipson’s THE END. Comprised of a 9 tonne swirl of ice cream topped with a cherry, fly and live-streaming drone, Phillipson’s sculpture bridges the gap between the physical and the digital, by capturing a live feed of Trafalgar Square which can be accessed online. The artwork responds to the site as both a place of protest and public celebration. However, after two years on the plinth, the commission is changing.

 

Later this month, Antelope by Samson Kambalu will become the 14th commission to appear on the Fourth plinth. The sculpture restages a 1914 photograph of Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe alongside his European friend and missionary John Chorley. In the photograph and sculpture, Chilembwe wears a hat, a direct act of protest against British colonial rule, which prohibited this in the presence of white people at the time. Just one year after the photograph was taken, Chilembwe would go on to lead a revolt against colonial control, which ultimately led to both his assassination and cemented him as a symbol of Malawi’s liberation.

 

In Kambalu’s reinterpretation of this image, the artist depicts Chilembwe as nearly twice the size of Chorley, with the discrepancy in scale representing an active amplification of Chilembwe’s voice, which for so long was not heard. According to the Malawi-born artist himself, the sculpture "reveal[s] the hidden narratives of underrepresented peoples in the history of the British Empire in Africa and beyond”.

 

 

With two of the other plinths in Trafalgar Square commemorating Sir Henry Havelock and Sir Charles James Napier, both military leaders heavily involved in retaining colonial control in India, Kambalu’s artwork is a critical addition to the sculptural landscape, as it challenges the viewer to readdress British history from a different perspective.

 

Antelope by Samson Kambalu will be unveiled on the Fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square on September 14th, 2022.