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October 10, 2005
Battle of Trafalgar (Square)
Five years ago, the installation of artist Rachel Whiteread's work, "Monument of Trafalgar Square", became an occasion for outcry from both the public and within the arts community. Recent tradition has reserved the empty plinth in the square for the exhibition of revolving artwork, selected by committee. Ms. Whiteread's monument is a cast of the plinth, inverted and placed on top of itself. In today's New York Times, the latest work to occupy the plinth is, "Alison Lapper Pregnant," artist Marc Quinn's sculpture of his friend who was born with shortened legs and without arms has again both critics and the public split. I think the statue is perfect.
As questions of physical disability and art continue in Londong, across the channel in Paris, another debate on art and disability burns. This type it's about mental disability. The Guardina reports in Paris revolts over morbid artwork, "An incomprehensible screed of words carved by a grief-stricken schizophrenic French farmer into his bedroom floor has become Paris's most controversial new art exhibit."
Further Reading
New York Times. In Trafalgar Square, Much Ado About Statuary
The Guardian Unlimited. Whiteread's reminder of modernist ideals defies sentimentality
The Guardian Unlimited. Paris revolts over morbid artwork
Posted by rst at October 10, 2005 07:33 PM
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