This morning I attended the unveiling of a statue of Battle of Britain hero, Sir Keith Park. This is only a model of the planned artwork but it captures the moment nicely, depicting Park in flying gear as he would have appeared to his fellow fliers whilst directing the defence against the might of the Luftwaffe. Park went on to direct the defence of Malta later in the war. A tribute to this hero is long overdue.
It is hoped that the statue will find a home in Trafalgar Square, on the controversial Fourth Plinth, bringing to an end the parade of embarrassing tat that has defaced the site in recent years.
4 comments:
I don't agree that Marc Quinn's statue of Alison Lapper Pregnant was "embarrassing tat", although the Fourth Plinth was the wrong place for it. But you're right about the rest of the trendy tripe that turns up there. The model of Sir Keith Park looks reasonable, but badly photographed. I'd like to see a better image before I make up my mind.
The photography is all mine! Very difficult to get a decent shot in very bright sunlight with the statue inside a perspex box reflecting the same light, and an unusual background of vertical steel rods.
The Lapper sculpture caused strong reactions, both positive and negative, and it seemed designed to shock and provoke. This is not always a bad thing, but it was out of place in such a historic setting - in my opinion...
I don't object to the idea of changing art objects on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, but was there this week in brilliant sunshine and the current installation made of coloured perspex sheets was certainly not at its best.
London grime had wrought havoc on what should have been a glittering piece, although totally out of sync with surrounding architecture.
The perspex thingy is quite attractive when bright sun shines through it, but once again, completely out of place.
The artists intended it to become grimed by the atmosphere, indeed it was hoped that the pigeons would use it as a perch, hence its original name 'Hotel for the Birds', which also poked fun at Livingstone's war on the flying rats.
However some types of protest were more appreciated than others under the old regime, hence the change of name to 'Model of a Hotel', now poking fun at modern architecture.
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