Trafalgar Square now includes a piece of public art dedicated to the ‘trans and non-binary community.’ For the next 18 months, visitors to the central London landmark will be reminded of the ideological capture of the British art establishment.
Mil Veces un Instante is a rectangular cube made of facial casts of 726 of ‘trans and nonbinary’ people. Each cast resembles a death mask, and the work as a whole is designed to commemorate Karla La Borrada, a cross-dressing male prostitute and singer murdered in Mexico. Its format and choice of materials mean that the viewer has to take the word of 61-year-old Mexican artist Teresa Margolles that the faces are those of who she says they are.
Originally the ‘life masks’ were due to be arranged around the plinth in the form of a tzompantli, a skull rack used in Mesoamerican civilisations. Since this version of the plan was announced, the finished version has face casts placed around a second object reminiscent of a shipping container. This means that the cube’s elevated location makes viewing the individual faces difficult, defeating one of its formal objectives as a work of art.
The fourth plinth itself is not new to controversy. In the absence of a permanent companion to the statues of Horatio Nelson, King George IV, General Sir Charles James Napier, Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, and some (hollow) lions, it has been used to host contemporary artworks since 1999, with mixed results. Some of the public art displayed has been more provocative than thought-provoking.
The thinking behind the latest installation is that the ‘trans and non-binary community’ faces unique levels of homicidal violence. This involves polemical sleight-of-hand, by treating the brutal fate of prostituted Mexicans (and often Brazilians) as the norm for self-declared ‘trans’ people worldwide. The claim echoes the dishonest way that the threat of suicide by ‘trans kids’ is weaponised in support of harmful ‘gender-affirming care.’
If the product of Margolles’ technical skills is squandered by its inappropriate display atop the plinth, this won’t trouble the awarding committee who commissioned it. Not unlike the work of overrated graphic designer Banksy, this morbid piece is being funded and feted on account of its entirely conventional politics. More dangerously, it hypes up a threat of interpersonal violence in pursuit of forcing through its own narrow political agenda.
