Rocking horse and blue cockerel to grace Fourth Plinth

A public vote on a series of six shortlisted designs displayed in maquette form decided the winners.

Powerless Structures a rocking horse installation by Elmgreen & Dragset, will replace Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson Ship In a Bottle next year.

The structure will stand for a year before Hahn / Cock by Katharina Fritsch is given a year-long tenure in 2013.

The rocking horse will be cast in bronze and looks to elevate its rider – the child – as a historical hero in the context of other Trafalgar Square iconography.

According to the Mayor’s office it questions ‘monuments predicated on military victory and defeat’ and instead celebrates ‘a future to hope for’.

Fritsch’s ultramarine blue cockerel is described as ‘bringing a sense of hallucination and uncertainty to the genteel Georgian architecture,’ by the Mayor’s office. As a motif in Modernist art it symbolises regeneration, awakening and strength, the Mayor’s office says.

 Johnson praised the response from the public and called the designs ‘witty and enigmatic creations’ which would ‘keep people talking’.