{"id":16075,"date":"2015-03-06T12:20:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T12:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=16075"},"modified":"2015-03-06T14:02:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T14:02:47","slug":"a-skeletal-horse-with-a-live-stock-market-feed-takes-over-trafalgar-squares-fourth-plinth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/a-skeletal-horse-with-a-live-stock-market-feed-takes-over-trafalgar-squares-fourth-plinth\/","title":{"rendered":"A skeletal horse with a live stock market feed takes over Trafalgar Square&#8217;s fourth plinth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-01.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now the tenth artwork to occupy the fourth plinth in London&#8217;s\u00a0Trafalgar Square, Gift Horse presents a skeletal sculpture entwined\u00a0with an\u00a0electronic ribbon displaying a live ticker feed from the London Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-02.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Created by\u00a0German artist Hans Haacke, the striking bronze of a\u00a0riderless horse is said to be a wry reference to an equestrian statue of William IV originally planned for the plinth, which never materialised\u00a0due to a lack of funds.<\/p>\n<p>The 78 year old New York-based artist said he was inspired by an engraving in The Anatomy of the Horse (1766) by English painter George Stubbs\u00a0(whose works can be seen in the adjacent National Gallery, on Trafalgar Square).<\/p>\n<p>Haacke declined to\u00a0explain the message behind the sculpture, telling the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/entertainment-arts-31739574\" target=\"_blank\">BBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is an invitation to make connections,\u00a0but I would not like to give directions. I&#8217;m sure there will be a diversity of responses. That is not only true for this but any kind of art.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-03.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s one of my favourite pieces on the plinth so far, although I still really like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/nelson%e2%80%99s-ship-in-a-bottle-and-gay-pride-trafalgar-square\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nelson&#8217;s Ship In A Bottle.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-04.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-05.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-06.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-07.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-08.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-09.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-10.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-11.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-12.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-13.jpg\" alt=\"Gift Horse by German artist Hans Haackeon on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, London, March 2015\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read more about the artist: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2015\/feb\/27\/hans-haacke-horseplay-city\" target=\"_blank\">Horseplay: What Hans Haacke&#8217;s fourth plinth tells us about art and the City<\/a> [Guardian]<\/p>\n<p>Do you like the new sculpture? Please add your thoughts below or talk about London matters on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.net\/forums\/forums\/london-and-the-south-east.48\/\" target=\"_blank\">urban75 forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now the tenth artwork to occupy the fourth plinth in London&#8217;s\u00a0Trafalgar Square, Gift Horse presents a skeletal sculpture entwined\u00a0with an\u00a0electronic ribbon displaying a live ticker feed from the London Stock &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[456],"tags":[34,785,1096,10,567,35],"class_list":["post-16075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-art","tag-fourth-plinth","tag-hans-haacke","tag-london","tag-sculpture","tag-trafalgar-square"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/gift-horse-fourth-plinth-london-011.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-4bh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16075"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16082,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075\/revisions\/16082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}