Fourth Plinth Jokers

Today, in the foyer of St Martin-in-the-Fields off Trafalgar Square, marquettes of the six new contenders for the Fourth Plinth were unveiled. The St Martin's website describes them as "stunning" (CLICK). Stunning in their banality certainly. Liliane Lijn's Two Revolving Robotic Cones (2013) are about as good as it gets. This makes me think of a supine disabled person struggling to rise. There's a thumbs-up sign with an out-of-proportion 32ft thumb, a giant Moon Mask made of aluminium, a skeleton of a horse with a live stock market ticker tape on its leg, a copy of a natural rock formation and, finally, a sculpture which tries to combine all the statues in the square (CLICK). The Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group will select two of these soulless gimmicks for full-sized creation next year.