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We’ve had whipped cream, we’ve had ships in bottles, we’ve had horse skeletons and we’ve had a big thumbs up: and now, we know what (might be) next, because the shortlist for the next sculpture to take pride of place on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth has just been announced. Picked from this list will be two sculptures, one unveiled in 2026, the other taking its place two years later in 2028.
The seven artists shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth
Ruth Ewan
Cutesy trinket or omen of bad luck? Ewan’s enormous black moggy is both adorable and threatening, acting as an paean to the Suffragists (who were often called catty by the misogynistic media of the era) and Trafalgar Square’s history as a place of conflict.
Veronica Ryan
This huge sweet potato ‘island’ by Turner Prize-winner Ryan is intended to highlight how ‘food, famine, and economic power structures define our interwoven histories over time, and space’. Who knew lunch had so much to say?
Andra Ursuţa
Is Ursuţa’s ghostly shrouded statue a satire of the history of equestrian statuary, as seen all over the city, or is she just horsing around?
Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE
This ultra-colourful psychedelic vehicle pays homage to Kumari Singh’s father’s ice cream van, acting as a container of both childhood memory and a more universal story of migration and joyful optimism.
Gabriel Chaile
The South American hornero bird often builds its intricate nests on public sculptures, so here, Argentinian artist Chaile is doing the old switcheroo, building a hornero nest AS a public sculpture.
Tschabalala Self
Self’s vast striding woman in a blue dress is meant to bring a contemporary ‘everywoman’ to the middle of London, ‘a walking icon of the everyday, rather than an idol representing the adulation of one.’
Thomas J Price
You can’t escape Thomas J Price; the English artist already has public sculptures on view in Stratford and Hackney, and now he wants to take over Trafalgar Square with this enormous bonce intended to subvert traditional ideas of sculpture.
The Fourth Plinth shortlist is on view at the National Gallery until Mar 17. Free. More details here.
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