New community artwork goes up on W4th plinth – Spring 2025

‘Paris Study No 1’ by Philip Michael Wolfson

‘Paris Study No 1’ by Philip Michael Wolfson replaces ‘Sky’ by Sally Gatie

A new community artwork has been hung on the railway embankment at Turnham Green Terrace. Paris Study No 1 by Philip Michael Wolfson was added to the ‘W4th plinth’ on Friday 30 May.

“I’m thrilled”, the artist told The Chiswick Calendar. His work has been exhibited in Paris, Vienna and New York, but this was the first time he had won a public commission in the UK, he told us.

Organised by Abundance London, the community artworks are chosen by a panel of judges and a public vote and stay up for around six months.

The new work, replacing Sky by Sally Gatie, is part of a series of abstract maps – “cartographic examinations of movement and urban development, and their associated ‘Red Squares’ which are the generating centers of power, influence and domination.”

“I am just starting a series of London maps, and I wondered if they would rather have one of those than one of Paris, but they told me ‘oh it’s alright, everyone knows Paris’,” said Wolfson.

Image: Philip Michael Wolfson

The artist

The artist studied architecture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and at the Architectural Association in London, where he was mentored by the late Zaha Hadid.

When he finished his studies, he spent the next ten years as head of design in her studio before establishing his own studio in London in 1991.

Wolfson has worked internationally: “creating interiors, developing functional and sculptural pieces”, and producing art works shown at leading international art and design exhibitions, galleries, and public venues.

His approach to design and art is informed by the dynamics of fracture and fragmentation – layering and manipulating his materials into fluid shapes and forms, using woods, glass, metals and stones, as well as new materials such as carbon fibre.

His works have been shown at the Soane Museum, the Saatchi Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Foundation Cartier in Paris, the MAK in Vienna, and the Museum of Art & Design in New York.

As of Friday he can add the most presitgious venue of them all to the list – the ‘W4th plinth’, aka a brick wall, in Chiswick.

Image: The latest work replaces ‘Sky’by Sally Gatie, one of her series ‘Upside-Downies’

In his artist’s statement Philip Michael Wolfson says:

“The necessary and vital element of art is to provide stimulation in the pursuit of simple daily activities.

“Whether it’s the vastness of an architectural urban intervention, or the intimate confines of our immediate environment, experimentation with the way we perceive, manipulate, articulate and manoeuvre within and around spaces, forms and images becomes an enlightening form of research.”

Although an abstract take on cartography, the new work ties in with Abundance London’s hsitory of Chiswick in maps which they installed on panels under the railway bridge on Turnham Green Terrace.

You may not be able to find your house on it, even if you lived in Paris, but take a look on your way to the Tube and be stimulated.

Image: The new artwork on display at the Turnham Green Terrace piazza this morning

Previous artworks on the W4th Plinth

Image: Sally Gatie’s work ‘Sky’ being unveiled in September 2024

Image: ‘Sonic Serenity’ by Giovanna Iorio, installed January 2024

Image: Ceiling in the Sky, Cristina Schek, unveiled April 2023

Image: The earth from the Suomi NPP satellite, installed January 2022

Image: Community artwork, ‘Stay at Home’ by students at Chiswick School, hung December 2020 

Image: Penny the orangutan, hung March 2020

Image: The first artwork for the W4th plinth, Sir Peter Blake’s collage of music hall entertainers at the Chiswick Empire, hung in September 2019