London's Rotating Stage: The Fourth Plinth

For more than two decades, an empty plinth in London's Trafalgar Square has hosted one of the world's most public art commissions. Where a Victorian general was meant to stand, contemporary artists take turns making Londoners look twice.

In 2022, Samson Kambalu's 'Antelope' raised up the figure of John Chilembwe, an anti-colonial Malawian preacher, towering defiantly over a colleague — a sly inversion of imperial monument-making.

From Heather Phillipson's surreal swirl of cream to whipped controversy and delight in equal measure, the Fourth Plinth keeps the question of what — and who — we choose to memorialise gloriously open.

Image: “The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square between exhibits - the empty plinth” — LondonHistoryatHome, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.