changes faces of art on the plinth

Gormley’s One and Other is getting very entertaining in this weather. I must thank Flo Heiss for diverting my attention on Twitter:

Which linked to this (almost live) still from Trafalgar Square:

At first glance, quite funny. She’s caught in the rain. But look closer. This is art. The scene above is a clever twist on Renoir’s classic Lise with Umbrella, the woman on the plinth displaying the same distant charm as Renoir’s model:

I went to the site to see the ‘subject’ had discarded the umbrella and in a flash of lightning – and imagination – she  moved into an entirely new genre. She wasn’t sheltering from the rain at all, but using it as a prop to maneuver her way through the history of art in a bold, elaborate performance:

Just a bag on her head? I think not. Rather, a quite brilliant British interpretation of Hendrik Kerstens‘ portrait of his daughter, Paula:

But she wasn’t finished there. Next she fiendishly exploited her ‘audience’. The poor sod below though she was posing for a picture. And maybe she was, but she was also transforming once more…

…into 19th century German painting, Wanderer above the sea of fog:

The sky darkened and as she entered the twilight stages of her time on the plinth, the lady aptly nodded to a more contemporary artist, subverting her own temporary stage to raise questions about the future of public art:

An audacious parody of Banksy’s ‘Very Little Helps’ – and a finale that stakes her claim as the true urban artist of our time.