Lucy in the Plinth

In Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom stands the famous landmark, Nelson’s Column. Around the column are 4 plinths, 3 of which have statues on them. However, the fourth plinth remains empty. Many suggestions have been made as to what should be on the plinth and several pieces of temporary art have graced the plinth over the years.

Recently, the well-known English artist, Antony Gormley (famous for his Angels of the North which stands just outside Newcastle in the north of England) was commissioned to create a work of art for the Fourth Plinth.

Antony decided that the Fourth Plinth should be occupied for 100 days continuously by members of the public for an hour each. Occupation started on 06 July and finished on 14 October 2009 and 34,520 people applied from all over the UK to take up one of the 2400 sixty minute slots.

Lucy Croucher was one of the lucky ones to be chosen and her one hour slot started at 11 pm on 06 August 2009. When she made the application to be on the Plinth, she had already decided that she would spend her hour doing yoga and she was very excited when she received confirmation that she had been chosen. She immediately started to plan her practice and realised that she would need some good equipment to get her through her hour of fame. So she wrote to Yoga Paws to ask them if they would be prepared to donate a set of Yoga Paws for her to use on the Plinth. The answer “Yes” came back immediately and a couple of weeks later the Yoga Paws arrived through the letter box.

You would expect the weather in August to be pretty good and it was on 06 August until 7 pm. Then it started to rain really heavily and it did not stop at 11 pm. Lucy spent a very wet hour on the Plinth but it was so fantastic – the most amazing experience ever. Despite the rain, she managed to get through her whole practice just as she had planned. The Yoga Paws were invaluable as her mat was like a sponge and became useless after about 5 minutes.

If you would like to see Lucy in action on the Plinth wearing her Yoga Paws, please visit www.oneandother.co.uk, click on Plinthers, Week five, select Thursday and look for the 11 pm slot (the last one of the day).