Letters: Diana â the dream and the reality
Perhaps the ordinariness of her statue befits a princess who shone so brightly that she cast a disproportionate shadow
The statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, at the sunken garden of Londonâs Kensington Palace. Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock
The statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, at the sunken garden of Londonâs Kensington Palace. Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock
Sun 11 Jul 2021 01.00 EDT
Consensus in the press finds Dianaâs statue âdullâ, lacking âvitalityâ and âfrumpyâ and it may be true that part of the explanation is that the âenergy and purpose have been drained out of the art formâ (âDiana, Wollstonecraft, Wilde⦠why do we keep getting it so wrong with our statues?â, News). There is, however, a more fundamental problem. The idea of Diana, Princess of Wales, was always more significant than the real person. Even in an era of hyper-celebrity, few
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Mimi, a new permanent outdoor installation by Scottish artist and Newcastle University research fellow Rachel Maclean, is to go on show.
Mimi will be shown alongside a solo exhibition featuring four key works from the last decade of her career at Jupiter Artland in Scotland. Three years in the making, this ground-breaking new commission is the first time Maclean has worked entirely with cartoon animation and at an architectural scale, and her ultimate ambition is to transport Mimi’s world to high streets around the UK.
Known for her satirical characters and meticulously crafted fantasy worlds, Rachel Maclean has rapidly established herself as one of the most distinctive creative voices in the UK. Based in Glasgow, Rachel Maclean graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009 and her work came to public attention in New Contemporaries later that year. In 2017, she represented Scotland at the 57th Venice Bienniale. She joined Newcastle University in 2020.