Overview:

‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’ is a portrait of disabled artist Alison Lapper when she was eight months pregnant. It has been carved from white marble, weighs 13 tonnes and stands 3.55 metres high.

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: “I love ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’. It is a bold, modern and complex work that challenges peoples’ notions of beauty and disability. It also questions our assumptions of who should be the subject of a statue or memorial. One of the most valuable aspects of the Fourth Plinth is that it gets people thinking and debating about the place and value of public art. It forms an integral part of my vision for Trafalgar Square which is to be a vibrant, accessible space that is the symbolic as well as literal heart of London.”

Marc Quinn said: “Most public sculpture, especially in the Trafalgar Square and Whitehall areas, is triumphant male statuary. I felt that the Square could do with some femininity, linking with Boudicca near the Houses of Parliament. Alison’s statue could represent a new model of female heroism.”

Alison Lapper, the subject of the piece, said: “I regard it as a modern tribute to femininity, disability and motherhood. It is so rare to see disability in everyday life – let alone naked, pregnant and proud.”