The last time she displayed a sculpture in public in Britain, someone covered it in white paint. But, undeterred, the acclaimed artist is a placing a black woman in Trafalgar Square<\/p>\n
Tschabalala Self is relentlessly positive and unstoppably optimistic. The US artist is waiting for the unveiling of Lady in Blue, her new sculpture for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, a towering, colourful painted bronze of a black woman striding (positively, optimistically) into the future. Self seems resolutely hopeful about the work, which is pretty impressive considering what happened to her last public sculpture in the UK. \u201cYeah,\u201d she says, speaking from her home in upstate New York. \u201cI mean, that was a completely racist act.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, Self unveiled Seated at Coal Drops Yard in King\u2019s Cross, London. Like Lady in Blue, it was a vast, brightly painted bronze depiction of a black woman, this time seated demurely on a chair. After being shown at Coal Drops Yard without incident, it was moved to the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea, where the reception wasn\u2019t quite as warm. \u201cWithin the first week,\u201d says Self, \u201cit was spraypainted white, but only on the skin of the sculpture.\u201d As vandalism goes, it doesn\u2019t get much more pointed, or racist. \u201cThe first feeling I had was just pain that my sculpture had been harmed. That someone had enacted violence on an object I had imbued with love and affection.\u201d<\/p>\n
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