(2003 – )
West Downs Centre, Winchester
I feel I’m rushing around. I’ve got a 5-hour drive home this afternoon so find myself just stopping momentarily at places. On visiting new spots I’m not sure what parking protocol is and my concern about being somewhere I shouldn’t be plays on my mind. This is how it is when I pull up to Greta Thunberg outside Winchester University’s West Downs Centre. It is a Sunday so manage to pull up close outside the building, but I’m worried about getting a parking ticket. I just need 5 mins. Not long enough to fully take in the artwork, circle round it deep in thought, and view from all angles, but long enough to visit, take some snaps and go.
Greta’s statue is rare in the fact it has been created when the subject is still very much alive and active. You can imagine no council wants to fork out thousands of pounds for the protagonist to disgrace themself months after the installation. It’s hard to picture Greta in a bar room brawl or staggering out of a nightclub with powder around her nose at 4 in the morning, but who knows when she has so much life ahead of her?
I’m learning along the way here, not just about who these women are and how to steer myself across the UK, but how statues come about. Margaret Thatcher’s Grantham statue came in at the tune of £300,000 so it is not a decision given lightly. The bigger the statue, invariably, the higher the price tag. Materials aren’t free. Time and precision is not free. Nor is the installation and subsequent upkeep costs. Captured lifesize as her younger self and at a cost of £24,000 it weighs in considerably cheaper than other monuments and yet evoked criticism and anti-social behaviour. Sadly, the statue was moved in 2024 to the University’s courtyard garden and now stands with her back to a glass wall, which, as the artist points out, makes it less accessible as an art piece, with the opportunity missed of walking round the whole piece as art intended.
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