the fourth plinth

The fourth plinth 

an empty fourth plinth

The fourth plinth is a plinth in Trafalgar square in central London.  The reason being of its presence, is because of an originally planned sculpture, that’s was placed on the plinth of William IV, king of Great Britain and Ireland. But because of insufficient funds, the plinth had to remain bare. It stayed empty for almost 150 years, till 1999 where it was announced that three contemporary artworks were to be displayed onto the plinth. After a while, artists from worldwide started to create different sculptures to be displayed onto the plinth. This would get the artists know, as the sculptor will be seen by a huge number of tourists, the London public and admires of art who might want to buy the sculpture.

The next two artist that are going to be on the plinth, is hans Haacke and DavidShrigley. The two winning Marquette’s are currently being placed on exhibition at the royal London hospital in Whitechapel.

 

Hans Haacke dsign for the plinth portrays a skeleton view of a riderless horse. It’s an ironic sculpture as it’s intended on the equestrian statue of William IV originally planned for the plinth. At the front leg of the hours sculpture is an electorinic ribbon, displaying a live feed ticker of the London’s stock exchange, making the complete link between money, power and history. 

David Shrigley’s statue is a ten-metre-high hand giving a thumbs up. He has used the same colour as the other previous statues in Trafalgar square, dark patina. The height of the thumb on the statue has been exaggerated; The reason being is because Shrigley ambition is to make simple gestures to become a self-fulfilling foresight, that things that are considered bad, for example money problems, unemployment, the weather and society, will benefit from a change of agreement towards positivity

Man ray, painter, photographer and film maker

Man ray was mainly known for his photography work which crosses between two different art movements ‘dada and surrealism’.  He experimented with photography, seeing different ways to produce the picture. Around 1921 Ray also rediscovered how to make ‘camera-less’ pictures, which he called rayographs. He also experimented with cubist style of painting, and later moved to a different style; abstraction.

Ray was inspired by an artist called Stieglitz, who also worked with photography. Stieglitz used a similar style to Man ray, snapping images that provided a factual look at the subject. Ray also found inspiration at the armory show of 1913. The show featured the works of arts such as Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and Marcel Duchamp.

   This is one of my favourite Mvan Ray photographs. The photography doesn’t contain much detail of what is included in object, nor the outline of the object and the negative and positive space. That’s why I prefer this photography, as it’s something different and new. Most photography’s always contain the details and show every colour on the subject, but Man ray develops his picture in a different, way which interests the viewer. The effect of the negativity in the photo, shows the object going from light to dark. This is because where certain areas of the object in the picture are placed, for example if some parts have been placed under another then the area is dark, but if there above, the object is lighter. He used a machine called an enlarger, it’s what gives the negative effects of the picture.                                                                  

ENLARGER

                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIr9NXrp1ro

The link is a video about Man rays portrait of lee miller, a woman whom Man worked with, and also loved dearly. The video explains how Man ray created a new style/effect on his portrait of lee miller, and also his relationship with lee miller.

Looking at Man rays work, I started to work in his style and create a few examples of my developed negative.  The outcome was better than I expected

My own outcome in the style of the artist