The title may suggest it’s a difficult conceptual work, but Powerless Structures, Fig 101, by Nordic duo Elmgreen & Dragset, had appeared to win the popular vote for the Fourth Plinth from the outset. And rather than being difficult, it is, in fact, an immediately appealing and cheekily uplifting image of a boy riding his rocking horse. It was unveiled by Mayor Boris Johnson earlier today as one of two winners of the Fourth Plinth commission for 2012 and 2013. The second winner is German artist Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn / Cock (pictured below), which will see a giant cock in ultramarine blue surreally presiding over Trafalgar Square in 2013.
Powerless Structures, which will be cast in bronze, will be the first of the two to go up next year. The work makes playful reference to the traditional statuary of mounted war heroes and it will be only the second time a sculpted human figure has occupied the plinth since Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant in 2005 and Mark Wallinger’s Ecce Homo in 1999. The plinth is currently occupied by Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, which will remain till the end of the year.The winners were selected by The Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, chaired by former ICA director Ekow Eshun. The judges included Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, artist Grayson Perry and Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick.