Living statues chosen for Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth

An elderly pensioner equipped with semaphore flags and a student part-way through celebrating her 20th birthday will be among the living statues on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth. A total of 615 people were selected randomly from among 13,000 applicants and they will each occupy the plinth for an hour as part of a 'sculpture' called One and Other by artist Anthony Gormley.

They come from all over the UK, range in age from 16 to 83 and include a blacksmith, a professor and a rubbish collector. Many will campaign on issues, while others will perform and some may simply sit and read or use the time to think.

Heather Pringle, a student from Hexham, Northumberland, who will mark her 20th birthday on the plinth, said: "I plan to celebrate in style, a good old fashioned birthday party. There will be cake."



Aquatic scientist Oliver Parsons-Baker, 26, from Birmingham, said he wanted to highlight the importance of clean water and added that he would also illustrate the dangers of over fishing by dressing as a fish.

Gwynneth Peddler, 83, from Oxford, will signal with semaphore flags while David Rosenberg, 41, a designer from London, will use a folding pink bicycle to generate electricity to light up his suit.

One and Other will begin on July 6 and run for 100 days with a total of 2,400 people due to take part. Applications to do so remain open and will be allocated in three further phases.