07.07.2009

The sculptor’s telehandler

A brand new JCB Loadall 535-95 telehandler with an extra-large fork mounted platform, is helping out in Trafalgar Square where sculptor Antony Gormley started off his work in which people spend an hour on the Square’s empty fourth plinth.

Over the next 100 days, a total of 2,400 people from across the UK will individually occupy the empty Fourth Plinth, for an hour each through day and night. The plinth was built in 1841 and was originally intended for an equestrian statue but is now the location for specially commissioned works of art, the latest of which sees humans occupy it in artwork created by Gormley and entitled One & Other.

The telehandler is being used to lift the people onto and off the plinth which is over six metres high. First up yesterday morning was housewife Rachel Wardell, of Lincolnshire, although she was disrupted for a snort spell, by an anti smoking campaigner. She used her occupation to raise awareness of the National Society for Protection of Cruelty to Children, which, by coincidence, is JCB’s nominated charity.
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The telehandler will be used to lift those selected onto the fourth plinth

Gormley, the man behind the massive Angel of the North sculpture on Tyneside, conceived One and Other, which has so far attracted more than 15,000 applications from across the UK from people wanting become a ‘living statue’ in Trafalgar Square. He is one of the country’s most-successful and best-known living artists and specifically selected JCB machines because of their status as an iconic British product.

He said: “I’m delighted that JCB, as an iconic British brand, is supporting One and Other with the provision of a machine which will help elevate –everyday British life to a position that was formerly occupied by monumental art. It is helping create a unique snapshot of the extraordinary, multi-layered society that is the UK in 2009.”

JCB brand and marketing general manager Matt McClurg said: “To be at the heart of such an exciting British art project is not only an honour, but also a tremendous shop window for our products, particularly as the 100-day occupation of the Fourth Plinth will be broadcast live on the web.”

The live streaming of One & Other takes place 24 hours a day via the project’s website www.oneandother.co.uk, courtesy of main sponsor, Sky Arts.

All 2,400 participants for the Fourth Plinth project are chosen at random by a computer and can do anything they want on the plinth as long as it is legal. Applicants need to be 16 our over and living, or staying, in the UK. Registration is online via the website www.oneandother.co.uk
Applications will be accepted until September first, when the last group of people is chosen.