The Fourth Plint: Heather Phillipson, The End

About

Trafalgar Square sees extremes of shared experience, from commemorations and celebrations to mass protests. This sculpture attempts to address the specific physical context of the square, whilst considering a broader ideological one. How do we negotiate congregation, the intimacy of personal experience, broadcast and surveillance in one space? THE END represents exuberance and unease. Topped with a giant, unstable load, the plinth becomes a monument to hubris and impending collapse. The surrounding architecture and its population are participants in a mis-scaled landscape, one that magnifies the banal, and our cohabitation with other lifeforms, to apocalyptic proportions.

Philipson's videos and sculptural installations bring together images, noises, objects and language. Her work, be it multi-screen videos, sculptures, poems or music, explores how physical and emotional identities are made, manipulated and escaped. Her work often appears as walk-in collages of everyday materials and digital detritus.

Heather Philipson was born in 1978 in London, where she lives and works.