A couple of months ago I wrote about the upcoming “One and Other” project for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, England. The project launched last week, and we can now watch it live on webcam. (We can also track it on Twitter, inevitably).
The concept is that, 24 hours a day for a hundred days, anyone in Britain can apply to be chosen randomly to be on the plinth for an hour, and can do whatever they want with their time there. Some people are bringing extensive props and a whole program, others are just hanging out. And yes, I saw at least one person without most of their clothes (although maybe they had a body sock on). There’s also an interactive element that you don’t get with the usual piece of art on a plinth, with a steady audience for the plinthers to talk with if they so choose.
Watching the webcam also brings to the fore the logistics of Antony Gormley’s seemingly simple project. There’s webbing around the plinth to make sure no-one/nothing drops off, and every hour a cherrypicker descends on the plinth to remove one person and let the next one on. And there are several webcams with someone managing them 24/7, as the angle and focus of the webcam changes regularly.