Week 1️⃣ 4️⃣

Public art is artwork placed where everyone can see it, not just in museums or galleries. Because it is always visible, it sparks discussion, becoming part of how a community presents itself and remembers its history.

One of the most interesting examples is the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. Originally meant to hold a statue of a king, it remained empty for over a century before becoming a platform for rotating temporary artworks in 1999, prompting ongoing debate about what kind of art belongs in such an important space.

Antony Gormley's Angel of the North shows how a sculpture can move from controversy to acceptance. Completed in 1998, the giant steel sculpture watches over a former coal mining site in the north of England, and is now one of the most recognisable landmarks in Britain.

A very different angel stands at the other end of the emotional spectrum. The Knife Angel, completed in 2018 by artist Alfie Bradley, is an eight-metre sculpture made from 100,000 knives collected through amnesties and police seizures across Britain. It tours cities as a monument against violence, its material making the message impossible to ignore.

Public art can also be contested. The toppling of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol shows how monuments to figures linked to slavery can become flashpoints for arguments about history and memory. Statues of Christopher Columbus have also been torn down across the world. For many, especially Indigenous communities, Columbus is not a discoverer but a symbol of colonialism and the genocide of native populations.

Not all public art is sanctioned. Banksy continues to use the streets of London as his canvas. In April 2026, a large public artwork was unveiled in Waterloo Place, an area designed to celebrate imperialism and military dominance in the nineteenth century. The sculpture depicts a suited man walking forward off a plinth while carrying a flag that covers his face. Unlike the other works mentioned, Banksy's art is mostly unsanctioned and actively anti-establishment.

Public art is easy to walk past, but sometimes impossible to ignore. It tells us not only about the past, but about how people in the present choose to remember it.