Yes, just when you thought it was safe to go in the water....
Today marks what would have been the Queen Elizabeth II's hundredth birthday. So, with a rather muted fanfare the final designs for the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial in St James's Park have been placed before the public. Well, I think I might be rather muted if this is the best that we can do. The images are from the Cabinet Office and they can't even to manage to spell 'Commonwealth'. I really shouldn't complain about this because, as any reader of this blog will have seen, my spelling is, at times, atrocious.
Anyway, this morning X, nee Twitter, is mildly a-flutter with posts about this, and the tweeters, including myself, are not happy. There is a sense that the design does the Late Queen a disservice. People have been voicing their disappointment that there will be no equestrian statue of her Late Majesty, as illustrated in Foster + Associates submission. Sadly, it was never that likely, I think - the five designs that went out to public consultation were merely in the way of a 'Early Proposed Design Concept'. As Foster + Associates later(?) admitted the equestrian statue was merely there for 'scale'. As I wrote in my previous post on this project, consultation was a P0temkin exercise. Not only that, it was highly misleading. People supported the Foster scheme on the assumption that a) it was a serious concrete proposal and b) they were going to get an equestrian statue.
So, what are we likely to get? Well, thanks to Foster + Associates and Lord Janvrin and his committee* we shall have the following: On the Mall we have a bronze statue of the Queen, by Martin Jennings, standing a top a stone pier, and (beyond the gates designed by Sir Aston Webb) an area with a bronze bust of the Queen on a stone plinth, by Karen Newman; followed by another area with a 'Commonwealth Compass' designed by Sir Norman Foster himself. At some point there will also be a bronze statue of the Late Duke of Edinburgh by Martin Jennings, a new bridge over the lake with a balustrade of glass inspired by Queen Mary's Tiara, which the Queen wore on her wedding day. And then there is the sculpture by Yinka Shonibare, 'The Commonwealth Wind Sculpture'. Apparently there will be themed gardens with places for relaxation and reflection.
The words, reflection reflect and contemplation, re-occur throughout the material provided by the Cabinet Office; the Prime Minister is quoted thus on the Government website: "As our longest‑serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II devoted her life to public service. The nation will commemorate her extraordinary reign with a memorial that offers a place of reflection for generations to come." Nice to know everybody is on message.
Anyway, this morning X, nee Twitter, is mildly a-flutter with posts about this, and the tweeters, including myself, are not happy. There is a sense that the design does the Late Queen a disservice. People have been voicing their disappointment that there will be no equestrian statue of her Late Majesty, as illustrated in Foster + Associates submission. Sadly, it was never that likely, I think - the five designs that went out to public consultation were merely in the way of a 'Early Proposed Design Concept'. As Foster + Associates later(?) admitted the equestrian statue was merely there for 'scale'. As I wrote in my previous post on this project, consultation was a P0temkin exercise. Not only that, it was highly misleading. People supported the Foster scheme on the assumption that a) it was a serious concrete proposal and b) they were going to get an equestrian statue.
So, what are we likely to get? Well, thanks to Foster + Associates and Lord Janvrin and his committee* we shall have the following: On the Mall we have a bronze statue of the Queen, by Martin Jennings, standing a top a stone pier, and (beyond the gates designed by Sir Aston Webb) an area with a bronze bust of the Queen on a stone plinth, by Karen Newman; followed by another area with a 'Commonwealth Compass' designed by Sir Norman Foster himself. At some point there will also be a bronze statue of the Late Duke of Edinburgh by Martin Jennings, a new bridge over the lake with a balustrade of glass inspired by Queen Mary's Tiara, which the Queen wore on her wedding day. And then there is the sculpture by Yinka Shonibare, 'The Commonwealth Wind Sculpture'. Apparently there will be themed gardens with places for relaxation and reflection.
The words, reflection reflect and contemplation, re-occur throughout the material provided by the Cabinet Office; the Prime Minister is quoted thus on the Government website: "As our longest‑serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II devoted her life to public service. The nation will commemorate her extraordinary reign with a memorial that offers a place of reflection for generations to come." Nice to know everybody is on message.
Lord Foster says, "With a serene and contemplative atmosphere, there will be opportunities to rediscover – or perhaps for some to discover – the legacy of Her Majesty." What does that even mean?
We told that the design attempts to reflect (that word again) the Queen, as the Chairman of the Committee has written, "Our task has been to recommend a memorial capturing her role, her personality and what she meant to so many of us - whilst being of public benefit which was so important to her." But how is that possible when so much of her private values, such as her Christian faith is omitted?
The result of this seems to be teetering on the incoherent. We are given a bit of this and a bit of that. Some of it such as the new bridge strikes me as tawdry. As for the sculptures by Foster and Shonibare, the latter looking rather like the ghost in Jonathan Miller's 1968 tv adaptation of 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad', ate, a profound level, quite meaningless. It is the triumph of mediocrity.
I honestly believe that an equestrian statute would have been enough.
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