There’s a lot to like about the proposal to create new public art on the main plinth standing proud and woefully underused outside Land of Green Ginger.
There’s a plan to make it a real community engagement project. Created and built by local expertise from the plans of an internationally-renowned artist.
Potentially sold and money reinvested in further projects to create ‘an enduring cultural footprint’.
Of course Guernsey and ambitious public art projects haven’t always got on swimmingly. If anything, islanders appear to favour modest works, nothing too grand, or outlandish please.
People haven’t really seen yet a mechanical Guernsey lily, opening and closing in time with the tides, or the sail-like forms to partner them ‘inspired by Guernsey’s maritime traditions’. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that. But initial drawings look interesting, in a good way. And why not? Why can’t Guernsey be better known for public art, and a sense of ambition, like Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth programme?
The people behind the project say: ‘Together, we will demonstrate that business and culture can work hand in hand to enrich society, foster opportunity, and strengthen Guernsey’s reputation on the world stage.’
That is a lofty ambition. But let’s get this project off the ground and on to those plinths.
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