Look what's happened to the likely lads
By Kate Simon
Statues are back in the news. But this time it’s about the ones being put up, rather than pulled down.
‘Four Lads in Jeans’, a sculpture based on a photo of four young men looking awkward in their skinny jeans which went viral on the internet, is as much a tale of our times as the current re-evaluation of statues that have stood for centuries in our towns and cities.
The bronze-coloured papier-mâché interpretation of the quartet by the artist William Douglas, aka Tat Vision, went on show outside Birmingham’s New Street railway station, where the meme was born, as part of an August bank holiday arts event.
It was inspired by Homer’s Odyssey and the infamous bust of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo at Madeira Airport. Like Ronaldo, the four lads have taken their questionable likenesses in good heart.
Statues are a staple of sight-seeing and there are more new ones to look out for as you travel around Britain, including one by Antony Gormley at Imperial College London’s campus in South Kensington, which has the students up in arms.
The sculptor, best known for the ‘Angel of the North’, has fashioned cantilevered steel blocks to look like a squatting man. The students’ objection to the imminent installation of the six-metre-high form in the new Dangoor Plaza, just around the corner from the Natural History and Science Museums, is its horizontal three-metre-long protuberance, which, from some angles, could be interpreted as a giant phallus. The title of the work? ‘Alert’.
Similar controversy surrounded the 2020 sculpture dedicated to the 18th Century feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft in Newington Green, North London. Its creator, Maggi Hambling, was forced to defend her right to artistic freedom after the shiny swirl of silver metal, topped by a naked woman, sparked outrage as an inappropriate homage to Wollstonecraft, largely because of its perceived objectification of the female form.
These statues certainly get us talking and there’s plenty of them to talk about. Art UK, an art education charity, recently revealed the outcome of its five-year project to create a database of public sculptures across the UK. More than 500 volunteers helped amass information and images of 13,500 works.
But as well as revealing what’s out there, the survey has underlined what’s not. Just 2% of public sculptures of individuals are of people of colour. And just 17% are dedicated to women (many to Queen Victoria). Art UK deputy director Katey Goodwin said: “Analysing these sculpture records tells us a great deal about our country’s history and who we choose to commemorate...”
One important sign of redress is the unveiling this spring of the ‘National Windrush Monument’ by Jamaican artist Basil Watson, which you can see at London’s Waterloo Station. It acknowledges and celebrates the thousands of men, women and children who travelled to the UK from 1948 to 1971 to start new lives.
But just as the Art UK survey has exposed the inequality of our public statuary, so it has revealed where some interesting lesser-known sculptures can be found. They include ‘Truelove’, an installation set near the tidal barrier at the mouth of the River Hull, which depicts two Inuit people, Memiadluk and Uckaluk, who arrived in the port in 1847 in a whaling ship. It’s a sad story, told by the local museum.
Visitors to Stornoway in the Western Isles should seek out ‘Herring Girl’ on South Beach, sculpted in memory of the working-class women who toiled on these weather-beaten shores. And if you happen by Nando’s in Harlow, Essex, stop to admire the bronze statue of ‘Eve’. It’s by Auguste Rodin.
Love them, hate them, there are plenty of statues out there to see – and debate.
Phil’s beer notes
The ‘Four Lads’ chose a good spot to go out on the town in Birmingham. It can be hard to find a decent pint within a couple of minutes of most major railway stations, but at New Street you’re spoilt for choice.
Come out the back of the station and you’ll find a cluster of pubs and bars including the Wellington Arms, with 16 cask ales pouring; the Post Office Vaults, famous for its collection of 200-plus foreign bottles; and Purecraft Bar & Kitchen, Purity Brewing’s flagship in the city.
The latest addition is The Colmore, a joint venture between Thornbridge Brewery and Pivovar, the company behind the Sheffield and Euston Taps. It has eight beers on cask and 16 on keg.
It’s not so good out the front of the station, but the Craven Arms, splendidly restored and revived by Black Country Ales, is worth a look.
Photo © Scott CM/Alamy