When asked about the political intentions behind his Fourth Plinth commission Gift Horse (2015) Hans Haacke responded: "It is an invitation to make connections, but I don't want to give directions about which connections are to be made."...
moreWhen asked about the political intentions behind his Fourth Plinth commission Gift Horse (2015) Hans Haacke responded: "It is an invitation to make connections, but I don't want to give directions about which connections are to be made." (Weaver, 2015) The implication being that as an aesthetic and political object the sculpture should speak for itself. With this paper we will examine Haacke's withdrawal from interpreting his work. We will also discuss Gift Horse in relation to Boris Johnson's attempt to recapture the work and the re-appropriation of the sculpture by the protest group Animal Aid. Given the instances of public exchange opened up by Gift Horse, we will discuss how public art works operate as a distribution of the sensible-what is deemed permissible to say,
