Fern Girl to be added to the ‘W4th plinth’ in Chiswick on Saturday 19 September

Cristina Schek with Fern Girl

The latest in a succession of community artworks organised by Abundance London

Guest blog by Karen Liebreich

On Saturday 19 September at 2pm, Cristina Schek’s artwork Fern Girl will be unveiled at the W4th Plinth in Chiswick, a community-led public art programme curated by Abundance London. The 4 × 4 metre artwork will occupy the railway embankment at Turnham Green Terrace Piazza, owned by Transport for London, and the unveiling is free and open to everyone.

This artwork is the last to be chosen under the previous open submissions which attracted nearly 500 entries, narrowed down by an expert jury, and then voted on by the public. Six works were chosen from the 500.

Cristina is the first artist to have a second work on the Plinth. The jury chooses works based on the image, with no additional information supplied during the selection process (name of artist, explanation of the inner meaning, etc).

As many will know, but it bears repeating, the W4th Plinth itself grew out of Abundance London’s regeneration of the Turnham Green Terrace ‘Piazza’. Beginning in 2019, the project helped transform a degraded and overlooked public space through new planting, biodiversity, seating, cycle facilities and public art.

People sitting on the newly intalled benches at the piazza in July 2020; photograph Barbara Chandler

The wider regeneration sits alongside the Chiswick Timeline, a major permanent mural nearby created in partnership with Transport for London nearly ten years ago. The 4 × 4 metre railway embankment subsequently became a changing open-air gallery, with its first artwork commissioned by Abundance London from Sir Peter Blake.

Fern Girl is built from layers of Cristina’s own photographs, including ferns photographed in London, and explores the point at which the human figure and vegetation begin to merge.

Its arrival at the W4th Plinth creates a particularly fitting relationship between the artwork and a public space already shaped by Abundance London’s work in urban greening and regeneration.

The project marks Cristina’s return to the W4th Plinth following The Ceiling in the Sky, installed there in 2023 and unveiled by Dame Siân Phillips.

READ ALSO: New artwork unveiled for the ‘W4th plinth’

Siân Phillips unveiling The Ceiling in the Sky in April 2023

Saturday’s unveiling will be led by Cynthia Valianti Corbett, art historian and Founder and Director of the Cynthia Corbett Gallery, who represents Cristina’s work internationally.

Cynthia has become a leading figure in the international contemporary art world. Branching between the art markets of both her homeland of the United States and adopted home in Britain, she has supported the careers of emerging artists, many of whom have enjoyed great recognition. Cynthia Corbett Gallery is involved with Art Miami (Miami, Fl.), Nova Art Fair (Chicago, Il.) The London Art fair (Islington) and Art 212 (New York, N.Y.).

Cynthia supports and celebrates promising young creatives. In 2009 she founded The Young Masters Art Prize. This not-for-profit prize is open to all international artists and praises artistic skill and innovation with an awareness of the Old Masters, relevant cultural history and art of the past.

Abundance is also pleased to welcome Aura Woodward, Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, supporting Cristina’s unveiling. The event is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Karen Liebreich is the director of the environmental campaign group Abundance London

The piazza at Turnham Green