Now the local council elections are over and I have had a camera software glitch fixed (thanks HP!), I have had a chance to get back to statue blogging. For the next few I am going to have a general theme of "remarkable women". The first two will also have a link of missing statues and here is the first which for those outside London provides a bit of a puzzle picture to identify where it is located.
Click here for a full size image
The diary below the fold is fairly image intensive but several are clickable thumbnails to save space.
The scaffolding helps conceal the location. It is currently erected around Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square while major restoration works are being undertaken on the statue. This image from the London Mayor's web site shows the scaffolding nearing completion.
If you look closely you can see the metal bracing on the left arm to repair the damage when the statue was hit by lightening. Nelson's disabilities were a result of injuries in battle. Trafalgar Square was erected as a memorial to him in the 1840s, mostly paid for by public subscription. Its construction was captured by Fox Talbot in very early photographs from 1844.
Plinths were erected at the four corners of the square. The one at the north-west corner was intended for a statue of King William III but the money ran out before it could be sculpted - the second statue missing from the main picture! Debate over what to do with the empty plinth continued for 150 years until at the end of the 1990s it was decided to use it to support modern works for about 18 months at a time. The current one "Alison Lapper Pregnant" will be in place until Spring next year. More on the "Fourth Plinth Project" here
Here is a wider shot showing its location outside the left of the frontage of the National Gallery.
Full size
The statue is of an artist who was born with foreshortened legs and without arms. She receives an income from The Mouth and Foot Painter's Association, an International Cooperative of Artists which produces cards and Calendars. She graduated from Brighton University with a first-class honours degree in Art, and has since had numerous exhibitions of both paintings and photography. Alison's main subject, for her art, is herself. She is very confident with her body and with her sexuality, and very happy to pose nude for the camera as you can see. She is happy with her body and considers it to be different and beautiful. She can be quite outspoken and thinks that people are very often narrow-minded about disability and sex. She became pregnant in 2000 she had an affair with an able bodied man. As she puts it "I quite unexpectedly, and quite happily fell pregnant, and he ran a mile". Examples of her work are shown and can be purchased on the Britart site. Many there show her with her son Parys.
Alison co-operated with the artist Marc Quinn on her statue. He explains in his proposal
At first glance it would seem that there are few if any public sculptures of people with disabilities. However, a closer look reveals that Trafalgar Square is one of the few public spaces where one exists: Nelson on top of his column has lost an arm. I think that Alison's portrait reactivates this dormant aspect of Trafalgar Square. Most public sculpture, especially in the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall areas, is triumphant male statuary. Nelson's Column is the epitome of a phallic male monument and I felt that the square needed some femininity, linking with Boudicca near the Houses of Parliament. Alison's statue could represent a new model of female heroism.
In the past, heroes such as Nelson conquered the outside world. Now it seems to me they conquer their own circumstances and the prejudices of others, and I believe that Alison's portrait will symbolise this.
The statue is in white marble and was produced in Italy. As with traditional sculptures, much of the actual carving was done by artisans scaling up the original artist's model. It is probably a co-incidence but closer up the features of the statue recall the heroic ancient Roman or the imagery used in those commissioned by Mussolini.
Full size
Alison says of the work on her own website
The Square is such a traditional place. But I always thought it was exactly the right place for a statue like this. It makes a powerful statement about where we are trying to go in the 21st century - a future with truly equal opportunities for all.
Just as important to me is the fact that the statue is transcendingly beautiful and suits its place in the Square. I have watched people gazing at it for some minutes at a time and I can see that they are moved by it. Not simply experiencing sympathy for the disability it represents but something beyond that. I think they appreciate it's beauty as a work of art and are surprised to find themselves liking it, and realising that it works in the Square so well.
Since the birth of Parys, Alison has featured in a BBC documentary, one of the "A Child of Our Time" series. She has also written her autobiography "My Life in My Hands", published by Simon & Schuster and available on Amazon.