Artwork Details:
Marc Quinn: Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square
15 September, 2005 —5 October, 2007
Type-Sculpture
Medium-Marble
Dimensions355h x 180.5w x 260d cm
Location: Trafalgar Square, London
'Alison Lapper Pregnant’ is a portrait of disabled artist Alison Lapper when she was eight months pregnant. It has been carved from white marble, weighs 13 tons and stands 3.55 meters high.
Biographical information:
Marc Quinn (British, born 1964) is a leading contemporary artist. He first came to prominence in the early 1990s, when he and several peers redefined what it was to make and experience contemporary art. Marc Quinn makes art about what it is to be a person living in the world – whether it concerns Man’s relationship with nature and how that is mediated by human desire; or what identity and beauty mean and why people are compelled to transform theirs; or representing current, social history in his work. His work also connects frequently and meaningfully with art history, from Modern masters right back to antiquity. (http://marcquinn.com/read/biography)
Marc Quinn (British, born 1964) is a leading contemporary artist. He first came to prominence in the early 1990s, when he and several peers redefined what it was to make and experience contemporary art. Marc Quinn makes art about what it is to be a person living in the world – whether it concerns Man’s relationship with nature and how that is mediated by human desire; or what identity and beauty mean and why people are compelled to transform theirs; or representing current, social history in his work. His work also connects frequently and meaningfully with art history, from Modern masters right back to antiquity. (http://marcquinn.com/read/biography)
Quinn has made a number of
sculptures of Alison Lapper. As first evidenced in his series, The Complete Marbles, he is drawn to subjects that present images of 'incomplete'
bodies. The works explore the contradictions between our outside appearance and
inner being. They celebrate imperfection and the beauty of different kinds of
bodies as well as the strength and vitality of the human spirit.
Having made a life-size
sculpture of Alison Lapper when she was pregnant in 2000 and one of her and her
son Parys later that same year, Quinn was commissioned by the Mayor of London
in 2005 to make the large scale sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar
Square. The sculpture was carved from
white marble, weighs 13 tons and stands 3.55 meters high.
(
Artist Statement:
Marc Quinn said: “Most public sculpture, especially in the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall areas, is triumphant male statuary. I felt that the Square could do with some femininity, linking with Boudicca near the Houses of Parliament. Alison’s statue could represent a new model of female heroism.”
"When I was making the marble sculptures in The Complete Marble series, they seemed to me like public sculptures from the future. But now that Alison Lapper is in Trafalgar Square, the present has caught up to the future. Marble is the material used to commemorate heroes, and these people seem to me to be a new kind of hero – people who instead of conquering the outside world have conquered their own inner world and gone on to live fulfilled lives. To me, they celebrate the diversity of humanity. Most monuments are commemorating past events; because Alison is pregnant it’s a sculpture about the future possibilities of humanity." - Marc Quinn, Recent Sculptures Catalogue, Groninger Museum, 2006
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: “I love ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’. It is a bold, modern and complex work that challenges peoples’ notions of beauty and disability. It also questions our assumptions of who should be the subject of a statue or memorial. One of the most valuable aspects of the Fourth Plinth is that it gets people thinking and debating about the place and value of public art. It forms an integral part of my vision for Trafalgar Square which is to be a vibrant, accessible space that is the symbolic as well as literal heart of London."
Alison Lapper, the subject of the piece, said: “I regard it as a modern tribute to femininity, disability and motherhood. It is so rare to see disability in everyday life – let alone naked, pregnant and proud.”
(http://marcquinn.com/exhibitions/solo-exhibitions/marc-quinn-fourth-plinth)
Elements of art:
This sculpture adopts Roman qualities in the Hellenistic period by the theatrical emotion and the use of illusionistic effects to heighten realism. It reminds me of the Aphrodite often called the Venus de Milo (Fichner-Rathus 2015, p. 290) through the realism and passionate emotion and the shortened arms and legs. The combination of realism and idealism are the principles of Neoclassicism. (Fichner-Rathus 2015, p. 420) Quinn uses marble to sculpt, which has symbolic significance in neoclassical portrayal of Greek myths. The marble shines and radiates just like the works from the Greek Hellenistic period.
Connection:
I have chosen this artist because he has the position of displaying the representation of a person that has been excluded from public eye in a profound statement of femininity and motherhood. I respect that this artist has identified a natural and raw emotion of pregnancy with the beautiful form of a body that is not recognized in the ideology of perfection. I appreciate the thought provoking talent he has to advocate for controversial reproductive rights for women and for the act of opening others eyes to social injustices. I love how Quinn says in a statement, "Marble is the material used to commemorate heroes, and these people seem to me to be a new kind of hero – people who instead of conquering the outside world have conquered their own inner world and gone on to live fulfilled lives. To me, they celebrate the diversity of humanity."
All women have the right to motherhood!
Above is a video of Alison Lapper as she is covered in plaster of Paris in Marc’s studio to make a mold of her body. Watch the process of how the sculpture is made.
From this mold a life-size Marquette is made in resin, which is then used as a guide to carve the large marble sculpture in Italy.
Using tools and techniques that have hardly changed for centuries the sculpture is carved by hand, by reference to the life-size Marquette.
The marble is carved at a studio in Pietrasanta, using marble sourced from a quarry in Carrera.
Above is a video of Alison Lapper as she is covered in plaster of Paris in Marc’s studio to make a mold of her body. Watch the process of how the sculpture is made.
From this mold a life-size Marquette is made in resin, which is then used as a guide to carve the large marble sculpture in Italy.
Using tools and techniques that have hardly changed for centuries the sculpture is carved by hand, by reference to the life-size Marquette.
The marble is carved at a studio in Pietrasanta, using marble sourced from a quarry in Carrera.
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