Britons volunteer as 'living statues'

LONDON, July 7 (UPI) -- Britons who climbed onto an empty plinth in London's Trafalgar Square to become "living statues" say the experience is both exhilarating and terrifying.

A 100-day art project created by Antony Gormley called "One & Other" began Monday, in which people sign up to be picked at random to spend an hour perched atop the vacant, 25-foot-high statuary plinth in Trafalgar Square, The Daily Mail reported.

"Part of you is very excited and part of you is filled with abject terror," said London computer consultant Jill Gatcum, 51, the third "living statue."

Another "statue," Rachel Wardell, 35, told the Mail, "It was really very peaceful up there, very serene," but admitted she was "terribly nervous" when told she had been chosen as the first to take the plinth.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said "One & Other" was worthy public art, declaring, "We may have lost the People's Princess but we have the People's Plinth."

The other three plinths in the square hold statues of King George IV, Sir Charles Napier and Maj. Gen. Sir Henry Havelock, while the square is dominated by a 150-foot column topped by a statue of Adm. Horatio Nelson.