Contenders for Trafalgar Square plinth unveiled

The National Gallery has unveiled six artworks that will compete for the next place on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Among the nominations on display this morning in Annenberg Court are works by Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, Jeremy Deller, Yinka Shonibare and Bob and Roberta Smith.

Thomas Schütte’s Model for a Hotel 2007, the plinth’s current resident, is due to be replaced by a new piece of public art in 2009.

The winning work will be selected at the end of March by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, which was set up by the Royal Society of Arts and the Cass Sculpture Foundation in 1998 before its transfer over to the Mayor of London’s cultural strategy team the following year.

Public comment cards alongside the exhibition will enable visitors to voice their opinions on the nominated work, and feedback can also be given over the fourth plinth website, www.fourthplinth.co.uk.

Ten art organisation heads and leading cultural commentators sit on the group, which is chaired by National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne.

‘The new proposals for the next Fourth Plinth Commission show creativity, spatial inventiveness and a clear engagement with the particular location of the Plinth. They also demonstrate why this is one of the most high-profile public art programmes in the UK,’ Nairne says.

The six entries are:

• Yinka Shonibare – Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, a replica of the HMS Victory in a giant glass bottle

• Bob and Roberta Smith – Faîtes L’Art, pas La Guerre, an illuminated peace sign powered by solar and wind power

• Jeremy Deller – The Spoils of War (Memorial for an unknown civilian), a vehicle destroyed in an attack on civilians in Iraq

• Tracey Emin – Something for the Future, a sculpture of a small group of meerkats, a symbol of unity and safety

• Antony Gormley – One and Other, in which members of the public volunteer to stand on the plinth for an hour in turn

• Anish Kapoor – Sky Plinth, five concave mirrors ‘displaying’ the changing skyscape as a ‘monument’ on Trafalgar Square