Upside Down Woman Takes Place on W4th Plinth
Sally Gatie's 'Sky' unveiled as new artwork on Turnham Green Terrace
The new piece was selected by public vote last year
September 14, 2024
The latest artwork to be displayed by the piazza on Turnham Green Terrace was unveiled this Saturday (14 September).
The new piece to take up residence for at least six months on the W4th Plinth is ‘Sky’ by Sally Gatie who is based near Scarborough in North Yorkshire.
The work shows a woman hanging upside down with a blue sky and clouds background and was one of the top picks of a public vote held last year for which there were 500 submissions. The most popular pieces from this vote are currently being displayed in rotation.
A crowd of about 70 people assembled to see the unveiling and pure juice from local apples was provided by Abundance London.
Sally Gatie normally works with crumpled fabrics on large canvases, but ‘Sky’ is part of her Upside Down series which replaces her normal background with sky and clouds. She says this body of work shows the importance of holding on to childhood through a child's view of the world, dangling upside down in an upside down world.
The information board next to the picture states, “My world became an unfamiliar place as childhood gave way to adolescence. The grown up rules didn't make any sense, they only confused. Suddenly, innocence was abandoned and replaced, almost overnight, with adult games, and nobody explained the rules. Learning through older siblings, listening to whispers and mistakes...many mistakes. The world used to make sense. Now, even though well past adolescence, it still doesn't make much sense.
The W4th Plinth concept is borrowed from the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square which is a rolling programme of temporary artworks and ‘Sky’ replaces Giovanna Iorio’s Sonic Serenity which was in place since this February.
Sonic Serenity: Chiswick Bridge & the Infinite
Abundance London is a voluntary organisation with charitable aims, founded in 2010 which works with local schools, volunteers, businesses, community groups and local government, harvesting surplus fruit, planting orchards, flowers and trees, trying to reconnect people living in the city with nature.
The ‘W4th Plinth’ initiative, which has been running for five years, is a collaborative effort between Abundance London and local artists.
The first ever display was in 2019 with pop art master Sir Peter Blake’s artwork The Chiswick Empire and since then new pieces from both emerging talents and established creators have been displayed.
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