The bronze of a child on a rocking horse by Elmgreen & Dragset and a gigantic Klein-blue cockerel by Katharina Fritsch are to be commissioned for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, mayor of London Boris Johnson announced this morning at City Hall. The Commissioning Group — chaired by former ICA executive director Ekow Eshun, and including the likes of Grayson Perry and Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick — has favored the lightest and most humorous proposals, perhaps to cheer Londoners up when drastic cuts in government funding are about to take effect across the board.

The other proposals that had included Brian Griffiths' brick Battenberg cake, Hew Locke’s fetish-adorned equestrian statue, Meriele Neudecker's Great Britain-shaped mountains and Allora & Calzadilla's ATM connected to a working organ. Elmgreen & Dragset and Katharina Fritsh's proposals were undoubtedly the easiest on the eye. Their simple, elegant and striking shapes make them the most susceptible to be appreciated by the throngs crowding London’s most touristy spot daily.

Their apparent accessibility may be good for what seems to be the underlying stakes of both pieces: a critique of an adult male-dominated history set up right in front of a temple to this history, the National Gallery. Elmgreen & Dragset's "Powerless Structures, Fig. 101" subverts the very idea of the heroic equestrian sculpture of the kind to be found on the square’s three other plinths. Instead of achievement, it celebrates potential; instead of authority, it honors a child's fragility and naïve enthusiasm. "It's also about being part of the game," the duo said during the press conference — a timely team spirit as the piece will be unveiled in 2012 to coincide with the London Olympics.

Fritsch's "Hanh/Cock," scheduled for 2013, continues with a line of large monochrome sculptures that the artist has developed over the last three decades. It also positions itself as an absurd monument to inflated egos, mocking the self-importance of past and present politicians alike. "I wanted to do a sculpture which is on one side serious but also humorous," she has said, "to give an optimistic perspective [without] becoming too severe."

Like all the Fourth Plinth commissions, these two new works will only be installed for 18 months. It’s a temporary intervention within London’s urban fabric — a thought Elmgreen & Dragset seem to find reassuring. "It is a comfort to know that it will be there only temporarily," they say of their rocking horse. "That’s the strength and true beauty of the Fourth Plinth Commissions — they are there long enough to evoke debate, to be treasured or disliked — and then they will be exchanged with a new project which in turn will be discussed. Such dynamics are part of keeping a city alive."