Disabled artist's naked form takes her place
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-14 15:58

The famous statue of Admiral Nelson in London's Trafalgar Square will this week gain a new neighbour alongside his long-standing collection of generals on horseback: a naked, pregnant, disabled artist.

Marc Quinn of Britain stands with his sculpture 'Alison Lapper Pregnant.' The famous statue of Admiral Nelson in London's Trafalgar Square will this week gain a new neighbour alongside his long-standing collection of generals on horseback: a naked, pregnant, disabled artist. [AFP]

"Alison Lapper Pregnant", a 3.5-metre (11.5-foot) tall marble sculpture by British artist Marc Quinn, is the critically controversial but publicly popular choice to sit on the square's so-called "fourth plinth".

Landscaped in the 1840s to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory over French and Spanish forces in the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805, the central London plaza has as its centrepiece a huge stone column topped by a statue of Nelson himself.

At each of the square's four corners is a plinth, three of which are topped with statues to mark heroes of the era, monarch George IV and two noted army generals, Henry Havelock and Sir Charles Napier.

But the fourth plinth was never filled, and several years ago city officials began a long search to find a suitable statue, a process which finally ended last year with two winners.

The first, to occupy the plinth for 18 months, is the sculpture of Lapper.

Lapper, herself a noted artist, was born with shortened legs and no arms due to phocomelia, a genetic condition which has effects similar to those caused by the drug thalidomide.

Quinn, who first achieved fame in 1991 with a life-size cast of his own head made by freezing nine pints (5.1 litres) of his own blood, was keen to create a sculpture based around disability, in part because Nelson himself lost an eye and an arm during battles.

His final creation, to be unveiled on Thursday -- created by craftsmen in Italy from an initial sculpture by Quinn -- shows a serene-faced Lapper sitting heavily pregnant and completely naked.

When Quinn was announced as one of two winners in March 2004, some critics were scathing.

"The politically correct lobby has prevailed," sniped Julie Kirkbride, culture spokeswoman for the main opposition Conservative Party.

Jonathan Jones, art critic for The Guardian, was unimpressed for aesthetic reasons, saying: "Its meaning is so forthright, so plain, that it falls short of being art."

In contrast, much of the public reaction has been positive to the sculpture.

"Maybe people will be a little shocked at the change. But hopefully that first shock will draw your attention to the sculpture and then, once it's got under your skin, there will be an emotional response to it," Quinn told reporters earlier in the week.

Lapper has said she is happy to be on view in giant form in such a prominent position.

"Anything that we're uncomfortable with we avoid. But now I'm up there, 15 feet (4.5 metres) -- you can't avoid me any more," she said of the statue's position on the plinth.

Lapper is keen to be viewed as an artist, not a disabled artist.

"My art is not just about disability. It's about how I feel about my body, how I feel as a mother. I'm not a crusader, it just seems to have turned out that way, but I am Alison, first and foremost," she said.

But for Quinn, his subject is undeniably heroic.

"She's been through a lot, faced a lot of adversity, but she's been through it and she's triumphed," he said.

This view has received support from some seemingly unlikely quarters, such as the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper, not generally a supporter of modern art.

"The work's arrival in our capital now couldn't be more timely," a columnist for the paper said in August, after bomb attacks in London killed 56 people, among them four suicide attackers.

"Strong, capable and expectant in many senses, it is a potent symbol of resilience and hope."

In a year and a half, the sculpture will be replaced by the joint winner, "Hotel for the Birds" by German-born Thomas Schutte, a perspex model of an imaginary building in primary colours.

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