Art shortlist for London's Trafalgar square plinth unveiled

The latest shortlist of works of art for the fourth plinth in London's landmark Trafalgar Square were revealed Tuesday. A shortlist of six works has been drawn up to fill the temporary space on the fourth plinth, which has become a home to controversial and innovative works since it began to be used to display new works in 1999. The six ideas are competing for the next two slots on the plinth, in 2015 and 2016. The artists Marcus Coates, Hans Haacke, Mark Leckey, Liliane Lijn, David Shrigley and Ugo Rondinone have been commissioned to produce maquettes of their proposed works, which will go on display at St Martin-in-the-Fields from Wednesday. St Martin's is the church at the corner of Trafalgar Square, and a well-known landmark in its own right. Coates has proposed to place a large replica of "The Eagle," a rocky outcrop situated at a well-known tourist site Brimham Rocks, in Yorkshire, in the north of England. Shigley's design "Really Good" is a 10-metre-high thumbs-up, cast in the same dark patina as the other statues in the square. Haacke has created a skeletal, riderless horse that will display the live ticker of the London Stock Exchange on an electric ribbon tied to its leg. Lijn's proposal shows two identical kinetic cones made of brushed anodized aluminum engaged in a mesmerizing dance. Rondinone's "Moon Mask" is aluminum, abstract sentinel facing out over the square. Leckey has designed a creature made of amalgamated elements of the permanent statues in the Square, including details from the statues of James II, Admiral Jellicoe, the water fountain, and the Fourth Plinth itself.