London - "This is brilliant. This is what it's all about," said London Mayor Boris Johnson as he opened an eye-catching art project that will turn thousands of ordinary people into living monuments for an hour each over the next three months. Housewife Rachel Wardell, 35, became the first participant to scale the seven-metre-high fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square, standing silent for an hour in aid of her chosen cause - raising money for a charity to help victims of child abuse.
"It is quite peaceful up there, though you can hear a lot of the conversations below," she reported from the top of the plinth, surrounded by a safety net.
"I wanted to be able to represent a normal, everyday stay-at-home mums who aren't normally a feature of major artworks - to show my kids now, and when they are older, that you can do, and be part of anything, no matter how ordinary you are or feel," she explained.
Before the show began, an anti-smoking protestor briefly scaled the empty plinth, which since 1999 has been used to bring new art to the public in London's central square, dominated by the Nelson column. But his protest was accepted in good humour, and only added to the excitement.
In the past few years, British sculptor Marc Quinn's controversial statue Alison Lapper Pregnant and a contemporary model for a hotel by German artist Thomas Schütte have adorned the plinth, which was originally built for King William IV, who ruled from 1830 to 1837.
"Do these toga'd baffoons cast in bronze around Trafalgar Square deserve any more celebration than this person up there?" asked Johnson in a reference to the military heroes and statesmen dotted around the square.
For Britain's leading sculptor, Antony Gormley, who conceived the idea of the project he has named The One and Other, it's all about democratizing art.
"I thought it was an interesting idea to pluck people from their daily lives, or from the street, and see what they look like as a representation."
"What is life, and what is art?" asked Gormley. "There is a distinction between what somebody looks like and what they are. It is the transformation of an impulse into an act. And an hour is just long enough time for the subject to think in a lot of different ways about who they are."
The oldest "plinther," as participants have become known, is retired teacher Gwynneth Pedler, who at 83 plans to go up the plinth in her wheelchair to prove that she "is still in the world."
Oliver Parson-Baker, a 26-year-old aquatic scientist, plans to highlight the global shortage of clean water by dressing up in a yet unidentified "pooh costume" for half his time on the plinth. He will then change into a fish costume to illustrate the dangers of over- fishing.
David Rosenberg, a 41-year-old designer, plans to be on the plinth at night when he will pedal his pink folding bicycle to generate the energy to light up a specially created suit he will be wearing.
Australian Scott Cupit, a 41-year-old dance teacher who has just started his own dancing school in London, will dance on the plinth for a whole hour.
Meanwhile, Anthony Pressley, from Britain, wants to make his a appearance a statue of an ordinary man. "Not a king. Not a general, just an ordinary man."
Of the 14,500 people who applied to become statues, 2,400 have been chosen to take part in the project until October 14.
They will stand, squat or sit on the plinth 24 hours a day, in any weather, arousing the curiosity of tourists and Londoner alike.
Participants have been chosen at random by a computer and can do anything they want on the plinth as long as it is legal.
"It could be tragic but it could also be funny," said Gormley of his extraordinary and unpredictable project.
