Britain’s “worst public art” announced

The Spectator has announced the winner of its annual What’s That Thing? award, handed to what the publication deems to be extraordinarily bad public art. Dashi Namdakov’s She Guardian has scooped the prize, selected by a panel including The Spectator’s design critic Stephen Bayley, art critic Martin Gayford, arts editor Igor Toronyi-Lalic and deputy arts editor Lucy Vickery.

Stephen Bayley described the work as displaying “a residual influence of the blustering, flatulent stuff once favoured in and beyond the Soviet Union…this is a grotesque, inappropriate and embarrassing intrusion into London.”

Eligibility for this year’s award was restricted to public art appearing in Britain over the past 12 months, whether temporary or permanent. Other nominations included Hamish Mackie’s Horses and Simon Fujiwara’s Modern Marriage, both of which can be seen in London.