Curtain comes down on Antony Gormley's plinth artwork

Oct 14 2009 by Sam Wonfor, The Journal

GO Fourth and Plinthify! That could have been the rallying call from artist Antony Gormley earlier this year – if he’d been a fan of irritating marketing slogans and associated wordplay jargon. Instead the artist, who gave us the Angel of the North, wisely opted to politely invite anyone and everyone who fancied spending an hour on the blank canvas that is the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square to throw their metaphorical hat in the ring for his fantastically diverse One & Other project.

For the uninitiated, the project, which comes to an end today, saw a different person taking their place on the historic plinth for one hour, every hour, for 100 days.

Two thousand, four hundred people, including astronomers, anthropologists, barmaids, burlesque dancers, poets, plasterers, jugglers, activists, promoters, contemplators and entertainers were randomly chosen by computer algorithm from more than 35,000 applications and have taken their plinth place since July. This morning Emma Burns, a 30-year-old medical photographer from Darlington, will bring the project to a close when she becomes the last person to step off the plinth at 9am.

Funded by Arts Council England and the Mayor of London, and supported by Sky Arts, applications opened in April and were open to anyone over the age of 16.

Mr Gormley said: “Art should be for everyone, this was an experiment to see whether everyone could be involved in making it. Who can be represented in art? How can we make it? How can we experience it?

“These are questions that have exercised me for years. I am inspired and given hope by what we have done this last three months. Whatever goes on the plinth hereafter the square will never be the same; the memory of this summer’s living sculpture in all its diversity is indelible.”

Emma will be the last of almost 100 North Easterners to have taken the opportunity get up on the plinth and do whatever they wanted to do (within the boundaries of decency etc) with their 60 minutes of global fame.