Date announced for David Shrigley’s thumbs-up sculpture in Trafalgar Square

David Shrigley’s Really Good sculpture will arrive on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth on 29 September 2016, the Mayor of London has announced. The sculpture will be a ten-metre-high hand with an extra long thumb, cast in bronze to match the patina of other older statues in Trafalgar Square. Shrigley hopes that the thumbs-up gesture will “become a self-fulfilling prophecy, that things considered ‘bad’ such as the economy, the weather and society, will benefit from a change of consensus towards positivity.”

The new commission will be the 11th sculpture to stand on the plinth, billed as “the smallest but most prominent sculpture park in the world,” following works such as Antony Gormley’s One & Other and Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle. Shrigley is known for his satirical drawings, animations and sculptures, and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013.

The Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group includes Jo Baxendale from Arts Council England, broadcaster Jon Snow, artist Jeremy Deller and Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery.