Naked Man Brings London to Standstill
A naked man brought parts of central London to a standstill on Friday after he installed himself on a statue near Prime Minister David Cameron's office for nearly three hours.
He braved the November cold and gawking crowds to straddle the monument to Prince George, a 19th century military chief and one-time Duke of Cambridge, adopting various poses including balancing precariously on the prince's head.
Police were called to the statue on Whitehall, the street on which many government offices including Cameron's Downing Street residence are located, after reports that a man had climbed up and might have had a knife.
From midday to about 3pm, police cordoned off the area as they tried to persuade him to come down. Finally they got him into a police van, where he was detained under the Mental Health Act, police said.
16 December 2012, 19:15
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It was interesting how a naked man on the head of a statue could lead to detainment under the mental health act. How closely ’genius’ and ‘madness’ are intertwined
Art (if indeed this was the idea) comes in all shapes, colours and sizes, from the mind blowingly wonderful to the ‘kidology’ we’re often exposed to today. Despite the theme choosing to climb and pose in such a variety of ways atop a bronze takes some ‘guts’ and the question must be…”be thou the tenth Muse [11th Muse], ten times [11times] more in worth than those old nine [ten] which rhymers invocate; And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth eternal numbers to outlive long date” [Shakespeare Sonnet 38]
Should a man choose to climb to the top of statue somewhere in a tiny corner of the UK he probably wouldn’t be noticed, one has to shake the bedrock of Whitehall itself to get such publicity – bring it on!!!!
