Trafalgar Square Pedestal

On Monday at 9am a housewife from Sleaford, armed with a green lollipop, will take her place on a pedestal in Trafalgar Square.

It’s Antony Gormley’s idea to invite UK residents to spend one hour on the pedestal, 24/7 for 100 days, meaning that 2400 citizens will each have their moment. He calls it a composite portrait of Britain; a work of art: “we will discover what we really care about” he says, “our hopes and fears for now and in the future.”

Pedestals are dangerous places. They have traditionally been regarded as resting places for people whom we honour, or regard with a certain degree of reverence: put yourself on a pedestal and you are immediately in danger of being knocked off. To be knocked off your pedestal is rarely a nice experience.

But my biggest concern about the Trafalgar Square pedestal is the suggestion that this is the chance for ordinary people to be raised up to make their point. The PR operation surrounding the project,
in one very disconcerting way, rests on the notion of ord-inar-iness which is actually non existent.

One of the privileges of my own job as priest is to be confronted daily by the remarkableness of human life in all is forms. Strip away kudos, status, rank, wealth or inheritance- and there really is no such thing as an ordinary human being. It’s nonsense. A contradicton. The actor Christopher Reeve, who spent the last few years of his life in a wheelchair, said that “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endures in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

And it’s true – that ord-inar-iness in people, signs and situations is rooted in the extraordinary – even in matters of faith as Frances Bacon memorably says – “God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it”.

There is no such thing as an ordinary person. Each of us is unique and extraordinary. Which brings us back to putting ourselves and others on pedestals.

On the basis of our uniqueness and individuality, as well as our potential, there is absolutely no point in keeping any of this a secret. Jesus himself says “No one lights a lamp and hides it under a bushel. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. “

So that on the understanding that this pedestal will celebrate the extraordinariness of human nature in all its forms, and, therefore, leave it not hidden, Antony Gormley has, in fact, come up with a great idea. I might even pop along myself to have a look myself. Mind you, it takes some guts and you’d never get me up there!