Knife crime: Patrick Green says ‘gangs are becoming more violent’

When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Samson Kambalu’s work is based on a 1914 photograph of the preacher John Chilembwe, a hero of African independence, and the English missionary John Chorley. It was taken at the opening of Chilembwe’s new church in Nyasaland, modern-day Malawi.

In the photo, Mr Chilembwe wears a hat, something which was illegal for Africans to do in front of white people during colonial times.

The piece by Mr Kambalu – who has spoken about the legacy of the British Empire – was chosen and will be followed by Teresa Margolles’s sculpture which features casts of the faces of 850 trans people.

Her artwork is called 850 Improntas and features 850 “life masks” of transgender sex workers arranged around the plinth in the form of a tzompantli, a skull rack from Mesoamerican civilisations.

The artist expects that it will gradually disintegrate in the rain.

They will go on display in 2022 and 2024 respectively.

News of the artworks quickly attracted a huge reaction on social media.

One user wrote: “Can you imagine the outrage from the usual snowflakes if Teresa Margolles’ artwork wins? That’s motivation enough to vote for it!”

Another said: “What a load of rubbish”.

DON’T MISS: 
Law change could see caravans seized if they park overnight [REVEALED]
BBC poll: Was new logo worth spending taxpayers’ money on? VOTE HERE [POLL]
POLL: Would you support a four-day working week in UK? [VOTE]

Meanwhile a third added: “Woke fest.”

Other Twitter users attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan for focusing on artworks rather than knife crime in the capital.

They wrote: “Makes me giggle the absolute bonkers stuff the London Mayor gets up to whilst kids are getting stabbed on his streets almost daily. He really couldn’t care less could he.”

And another wrote: “I guess you signed this off Sadiq Khan?

“How about the 4th plinth showing the faces of all the victims of London’s epidemic of knife crime and what you are trying to do about it?”

Speaking about his artwork, Mr Kambalu told the Guardian: “When you research the photograph, you find that actually there’s subversion there, because at that time in 1914 it was forbidden for Africans to wear hats before white people.

“For me, the Fourth Plinth and my proposals were always going to be a litmus test for how much I belong to British society as an African and as a cosmopolitan, and so this fills me with joy and excitement.

“It’s a big commission, probably the biggest I will ever do, unless we have another commission on Mars.”

He added: “When I proposed, this was before Black Lives Matter and George Floyd had been taken into the mainstream and I thought I was just going to be like the underdog, because I had made up my mind that I was going to propose something meaningful to me as an African.

“But we have to start putting detail to the black experience, we have to start putting detail to the African experience, to the post-colonial experience.”

The artworks were selected by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group after nearly 17,500 members of the public voted for their favourite designs.

The central London landmark has been home to a rolling commission of artworks since 1998.

The most recent Fourth Plinth commission, Heather Phillipson’s sculpture The End, will remain on show until September 2022.

Ekow Eshun, the chair of the fourth plinth commissioning group, said: “This year was an incredibly strong shortlist from six incredibly exciting contemporary artists.

“I am thrilled at the outcome and very much looking forward to seeing the new works on the plinth.”

Source: Read Full Article