On the Plinth/Off the Plinth: Re-imagining the Figurative Monument

The focus of this chapter is on a seemingly rejected monumental form – figurative sculpture – and its revival and democratisation since the late twentieth century. This is achieved through analysis of Kevin Atherton's Platforms Piece (1986; renewed 2023) at Brixton station in London; Antony Gormley's One & Other (2009) on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, also in London; and Gillian Wearing's Family Monument (2008–2017) comprising works in Trento, Birmingham and Copenhagen.

All these works are “democratic” in the sense that they raise new figures onto the plinth who were previously under-represented. However, more significantly, they point to wider concerns with the democratisation of both monumental processes and forms. Processes that took place to realise the final works are often critical aspects of them. This is true of Gormley's and Wearing's work, where the selection of subjects was key to wider rethinking about what constitutes the “nation” or the “family”. However, the chapter also offers an exploration of what has happened on and with the plinth in instances when artists have been concerned with democratising its form. In Gormley's and Atherton's works, it is revealed, the plinth is re-imagined as a lively and animated space for fleeting monumental encounters.