The latest piece of public art for Trafalgar Squares
fourth plinth is a large blue cockerel by German artist Katharina Fritsch. It is ultramarine blue, made from glass fibre reinforced polyester resin and stands 4.72 meters high.
The merits of the piece never seem to be the point so long as a huge amount of interest is generated and there were certainly a lot of people taking snaps while I
was there. Not sure they actually looked at the sculpture, other than through an
i-phone lens, but I guess that’s no more than it deserves.
The PR nonsense surrounding the sculpture is about ‘challenges
to masculinity’ and some tenuous French revenge theory over the battle of
Trafalgar. Perhaps if they used the fourth plinth for some worthwhile art they
would not have to result to cheap publicity. The newspapers seem to have used
more double entendre than a Carry On film to report on the ‘Hahn /
Cock, 2013’ sculpture.
Boris, never one to miss a publicity opportunity or steal the limelight, unveiled
the work, slipping into Carry On territory with his usual stand-up routine.
Why pay £25 to go to the top of the Shard when you can
spend the same amount on a couple of cocktails from the 31st floor
in Aquashard. This large, cavernous space contains a restaurant and modern bar
and a glorious view north to the City, west towards St Paul’s and the West end
and south east towards Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf. Access is by direct lift
from St Thomas Street. 
