Anthony Gormley’s fascinating Fourth Plinth project (live on the link One & Other) features 2,400 randomly selected volunteers who each take the pedestal for an hour to do what they want: eat, lecture, dance, sunbathe, sit on a (portable) toilet, text friends, play music, strip, jog, paint, draw, read, clip their toenails, wave to friends, giggle, sing and do yoga. I saw a woman who yelled at anyone who looked at her, feeling, she said, stalked.
Asked another, rhetorically:
What am I symbolizing? Artist? Sex machine? Muppet?
Seattle’s Ellen Ziegler used her hour to enlarge the idea of the project. Holding a mirror, she directed it at those gazing up at her. In looking at her, they were looking at themselves.
Watch Ziegler on the Plinth here. (The tape starts with a minute or two of the final performance of toilet guy wearing a kind of ribbon-like diaper.)
Participating (including travel expenses) cost her about $2,000, which she didn’t have.
Wrote Ziegler:
More than 120 donors contributed almost $2000 toward my travel and expenses, mostly in $10 donations. Why? I believe it’s because of the Quilting Bee Theory of Artist Funding. As artists, we need short-term funding from time to time. You give me $10 when I need it now, then when you have an urgent funding need, I’ll give you $10.
Community support is essential in these times. I’m thrilled that it worked, not only for my sake, but to know that it’s a method to support each other, just like a quilting bee or a barn raising.
Following is a (long) list of donors to date:
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
Anne Blackburn
Suzanne Beal
Paul Berger
John Boylan
Barbara Breckenfeld
Lisa Buchanan
Joy Brown
Carole Burger
Denise Carillo
Sheila Coppola
Tom Collicott
Maren Costa and Pete Hilgendorf
Jenny Craig
Pamela Crawford
Linda Davidson
Sedora DeBondt
Lanny Devuono
Beth Dunn
Eric Elliott
Deborah Fant
Brittany Faulkner
Anne Focke
Ann Gardner
Justin Gibbens and Renee Adams
Tim Girvin
Layne Goldsmith
Mandy Greer
Rick Groman
Abigail Guay
Deborah Gunther
Nancy Guppy
Miriam Hailparn
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
Linda Jassim
Shawn Jezerinac
Cat Jobes
Machelle Jones
Redmond Johnston
Lorna Jordan
Victoria Josslin
Shaun Kardinal
Cal Kinnear
Amanda Knowles
Alida Latham
Charles Laughlin
Deborah Lawrence and Mike Derry
Margaret Livingston
Shanti Loustanou
Kelly Lyles
Jack Mackie
Janet Madill
Rachael Mamane
Allison Manch
Pam McClusky
Tim McNeilly
Deborah Mersky
Iris Milligan
Will Morgan
Nina Moser and Charlie Rathbun
Rachel McGovern
Deborah Mersky
William Morgan
Saya Moriyasu
Bea Nettles
Melissa Noble
Rachel Norton
Nicholas Nyland
Deborah Paine
Maryann Peters
Lucy Pond
Ed Posnak
Del Rey
Teresa Redden
Mielle Riggie
Arthur Rostoker
Joan Stuart Ross
Kim Secunda
June Sekiguchi
Barbara Shaiman
Charmaine Slaven
Harriet Soares
Michael Spafford and Elizabeth Sandvig
Margaret Stephens and Rodney Malham
Katy Stone
Danny Talpers
Molly Tenenbaum
Gillian Theobald
Joanna Thomas
Fran Thompson
Anne Traver
Carol Trenga
Cathryn Vandenbrink
Richard Worthington and D. Lisa West
Bryan Yeck
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…
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