If there's one thing sure to put Londoners in a better mood, it's a giant ice cream van.
Or perhaps a sweet potato sprouting leaves?
These are just two of the seven shortlisted sculptures being considered to takeover Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth in 2026 and 2028.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the initiative chooses a different artwork to adorn the grey slab every two years.
Prue Leith, who was chair of the Royal Society of Arts, sparked the idea in 1994 after writing a letter to the Evening Standard paper suggesting something be done about the empty plinth.
Since then, it's become "probably the most famous public art commission in the world", according to the London Assembly.
Past examples include a bronze-cast hand giving a seven-metre-high thumbs up, a big blue chicken and a 100-day rotation of real people, who would stand on the plinth for 24 hours at a time in 2009.
The current sculpture is 'Antelope' by Samson Kambalu: a bronze depiction of a 1914 photograph of the Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe and European missionary John Chorley.
'Improntas (Imprints)' by Teresa Margolles, a collection of plaster cast faces of trans people that will take the form of a Tzompantli (an ancient skull rack), will be displayed in September 2024.
The shortlist for Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth in 2026 and 2028
'Believe in Discontent' by Ruth Ewan
'The Smile You Send Returns To You' by Chila Kumari Singh Burman
'Sweet Potatoes and Yams are Not the Same' by Veronica Ryan
'Ancient Feelings' by Thomas J Price
'Lady in Blue' by Tschabalala Self
'Untilted' by Andra Ursuța
'Hornero' by Gabriel Chaile
The winners will be decided by the aptly titled Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, a specialist panel of artists, journalists and curators, who advise London's Mayor ahead of an official approval.
Public feedback to potential choices also plays a part in who is selected.
An announcement for the 2026 and 2028 commissions is due in March.
