Goodbye from the Big Blue Chicken of London

UPDATE: The chicken’s time is up! A new statue was unveiled for the fourth plinth on 5th March 2015.  Click here to see my photos of “Gift Horse”.

Now back to my original post from September 2013, when I  stopped in London on my way to India, just long enough to see this.

This big blue bird, entitled “Hahn/Cock” and created by Katharina Fritsch, is the current occupant of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in Central London.  Three of the plinths have permanent statues; the fourth has been the site of a series of artworks over the past few years.  This big blue chicken, so warm and colourful in a grey stone square, is my second favourite so far.

My all-time favourite was one of the performances in Antony Gormley’s “One and Other” Project in 2009.

Each participant had one hour in which to make their mark.  Gerald Chong made cardboard replicas of London’s landmark buildings, including the London Eye and Nelson’s Column, set them out carefully on the plinth, and then, dressed in a homemade Godzilla costume, wreaked havoc on his cardboard city.

Here is a link to Gerald’s photos on YouTube of the preparation for his performance.  I love the shots of Godzilla riding home afterwards.

And here is a link to a WordPress blog from 2009, whose author enjoyed Godzilla’s performance as much as I did.

There is a fleeting glimpse of Godzilla 36 seconds into this video.