3:00pm Monday 6th July 2009
A Brighton nurse has become one of the first members of the public to occupy Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth today.
Jason Clark, 41, mostly stood still for his hour, occasionally waving at the crowd and taking photographs as he wanted to represent an ordinary British man.
Back on ground level Mr Clark said: "It was really exciting. The first five minutes I was quite nervous and after that it all seemed serene.
"I thought, 'don't fall off first', my legs were a bit wobbly for the first five minutes, I'm not great with heights, but then it was just about being up there.
“If you can weather the first five minutes it's all right then.”
He added: "I'd definitely recommend it. It's a very good experience to be up there, with a lot of freedom to do what you want.”
The plinth is being given over to members of the public for an hour each as part of a project by artist Antony Gormley.
The event was briefly hijacked this morning by an earlier unofficial protest by anti-smoking campaigner Stuart Holmes, who invaded the plinth before the first official participant, Rachel Wardell, 35, stepped up.
Jason, who has worked for the NHS for 18 years, told The Argus before he took the plinth that the democracy and openness of the installation was a great idea.
He previously took part in the Spencer Tunick naked photo installation at Selfridges, but this time he was fully clad.
Sally Budd, 52, from Furnace Green, Crawley, has also been chosen to be one of 2,400 people who will take part in the exhibition.
The mum-of-two, who was chosen at random out of 14,800 applicants, said: “I am very excited but also quite nervous as well."
She will take to the plinth on Monday, July 27 at 8am.
Click here to see a live feed of the fourth plinth.
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