IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE at ONE AND OTHER
TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON 24 July, 2009

The story: I was chosen by lottery out of over 24,000 applicants to be part of One and Other, an event curated by noted British contemporary artist Antony Gormley. He asked participants to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days between July and October, creating a portrait of the UK. A different person occupied the plinth each hour. The other three sculpture plinths in the Square are occupied by statues of kings and generals, representing the status quo of power for hundreds of years.

I expanded my work with mirrors into an interactive performance on the Fourth Plinth at 9:00 am UK time, July 24, 2009. Live webcams broadcast in real time. 

Here's a three-minute video excerpt of my hour on the Fourth Plinth in London, 24 July 2009. 

Statement by Antony Gormley, October 2009:

    "So 100 days of continuous occupation of a statue's plinth by 2400 real people has ended. It has changed my life and that of many others. No fewer than 2,400 people from as far afield as the Shetland Islands and Penzance have occupied the plinth for sixty minutes each, picked at random from nearly 35,000 who applied.
    "Who can be represented in art? How can we make it? How can we experience it? These are questions that have exercised me for years. Whether you see the plinth as a protest or pole-dance platform; studio or stocks; playpen or pulpit; as a frame for interrogation or for meditation, it has provided an open space of possibility for many to test their sense of self and how they might communicate this to a wider world."

     Antony Gormley, October 2009

Donations: over 120 donors contributed to the Quilting Bee Method of Artist Funding.

Thank you all so much for getting me there.

It's clear that people have donated because of a wish to act in community and to support the arts as much as in order to support me as an individual artist. A list of donors appears below. If your name isn't there, please let me know.

The quilting bee model of fundraising: As artists, we can raise our own “grants” if we help each other; just like barn raising or a quilting bee, we can support ourselves as a community. I had this opportunity, and I asked for $10 from you. When you need a "grant", I and our community can send you our contributions.

Let’s make the Quilting Bee grant model a reality! And thanks to Allied Arts for sponsorship.

Quilting Bee Method of Artist Funding
Donors:
Ernie Ach
Rosanna Albertini and Peter Kirby
David Anders
Robert Anger
Joe Ayres
Jesi Asagi
Shoshana Avree
Claudia Bach
Carol Bailey
Scott Balsam
Anne Baumgartner
Linda Beaumont
Anne Blackburn
Suzanne Beal
Paul Berger
Gloria Bornstein
John Boylan
Barbara Breckenfeld
Joy Brown
Lisa Buchanan
Carole Burger
Denise Carillo
Sheila Coppola
Tom Collicott
Maren Costa
Jenny Craig
Linda Davidson
Sedora DeBondt
Lanny Devuono
Beth Dunn
Eric Elliott
Deborah Fant
Anne Focke
Ann Gardner
Justin Gibbens and Renee Adams
Tim Girvin
Layne Goldsmith
Mandy Greer
Rick Groman
Abigail Guay
Deborah Gunther
Nancy Guppy
Mike Hascall
Vic Haven and Dave Lipe
Lynn Hays
Thom Heileson
David Hewitt and Marcia Wagoner
Dawn Holladay
Anna Marie Hong
Alixe Hugret
Etsuko Ichikawa
Rachel Illingworth
Eva Isaksen
Louis Jaffe
Shawn Jezerinac
Cat Jobes
Machelle Jones
Redmond Johnston
Lorna Jordan
Victoria Josslin
Shaun Kardinal
Cal Kinnear
Amanda Knowles
Alida Latham
Charles Laughlin
Deborah Lawrence
Margaret Livingston
Shanti Loustanou
Kelly Lyles
Jack Mackie
Janet Madill
Rachael Mamane
Allison Manch
Pam McCluskey
Iris Milligan
Jen Mills
Will Morgan
Nina Moser and Charlie Rathbun
Rachel McGovern
Deborah Mersky
William Morgan
Saya Moriyasu
Bea Nettles
Melissa Noble
Deborah Paine
Mary Ann Peters
Ed Posnak
Del Rey
Teresa Redden
Mielle Riggie
Kim Secunda
June Sekiguchi
Barbara Shaiman
Charmaine Slaven
Harriet Soares
Michael Spafford and Elizabeth Sandvig
Margaret Stephens and Rodney Malham
Katy Stone
Danny Talpers
Gillian Theobald
Fran Thompson
Anne Traver
Carol Trenga
Cathryn Vandenbrink
Leslie Welty
Bryan Yeck
Orah Young
Brandon Zebold
Jennifer Zeyl
Susan Zoccola

And a HUGE thank you to Don Aupperle, who had no idea what he was getting into when he volunteered to help build the big mirror contraption...