If you’ve ever been a tourist in London, then surely you’ve ended up in Trafalgar Square. Amongst the statues of lions and kings and queens there is always one Plinth with some contemporary art that looks a bit out of place. This is known as the Fourth Plinth, a space reserved for contemporary artists to display sculptural work. The time has come for Antony Gormley (the guy who did this) to create a piece for the Fourth Plinth. He’s come up with a bit of a crazy idea for his sculpture … you. He is asking for people to sign up for 24 one-hour slots for 100 days in a project called One & Other. You can do anything you want with your hour, the only rule is you must stay on top of the Plinth. Sounds simple enough, and it isn’t every day you get to be a piece of art in such a landmark location as Trafalgar Square. You can register here. The sign up sheet hasn’t been released yet, but it will be soon, and I’m sure spots will go very quickly. The entire 2400 hours will be streaming online, which could make for some really good reality TV. So, what would you do with your hour?

Our experience with steel wire sculptures has been limited to crappy key rings and county fair crafts. So when we stumbled upon Frank Plant there was a little bit of hesitation. Not only did he smash our previous notion of wire work, but broadened our idea of what’s possible. Take a look at this man ‘throwing’ a gravy boat — total want. Frank now finds himself a resident of Barcelona, but you don’t have to be intercontinental to check out his metal machinations. Read a story or two on his blog or take a look at his portfolio on flickr.

Though there’s been a lot of art inspired by government and political ongoings in the United States as of late, the impending election isn’t the only worldwide example of government policy affecting the artistic landscape. In Germany, the government recently proposed the telecommunications data retention act that would would require service providers to store connection data of all customers for six months, making the data available to law enforcement agencies. Plenty of Germans see this act as a breach of their privacy. One such German sharing that point of view is artist Andreas Nicolas Fischer, whose A Week In The Life data sculpture is a ‘three dimensional visualization of movement and communication made with a cell phone during a week roaming around Berlin’ made in response to the aforementioned act and the breach it constitutes. The sculpture was designed with the help of a specific software written for Fischer’s cell phone which accounted for his ability to keep track of the his longitudinal and latitudinal positions while roaming the city. The gathered data was then transfereed to a processing sketch which resulted in the final product that makes quite a statement both visually and politically.

Sculptor R. Justin Stewart does amazing things with thread, rope, paint, pvc caps, and lots of tension. One striking piece, entitled Existing Independently, utilized fleece material to create 52 cubes held rigid with ropes to outline the USA. He also constructed an elaborate installation out of three miles of blue thread, lead fishing weights, and some frames. His latest project is an enormous installation Bus Structure 2am-2pm, made out of copper, wood, steel, and lots of blue thread. You can look, but don’t touch! His Behance portfolio gives a sense of just how well he has mastered his art.

Each week, JoshSpear.com explores the latest projects by top creative professionals in the Behance Network and highlights a few that are pushing the edge of creative industry. Josh Spear also serves as an Advisor and Guest Curator for the Behance Network.

It would not do Joseph Shaeffer justice to simply adorn him with the titles sculptor, fabricator and conceptual artist. You'd be hard pressed to encompass to overall scope of his talents using just those terms. The Boulder, Colorado based principle behind the Studio Joseph Shaeffer exhibits both scientific and mathematic inclinations through his Industrial themed creations. The former student of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado incorporates kinetic processes along with principles of magnetism to create jaw droppingly, appealing works. Aside from his talents sculpting or whatever you want to call it, he's one heck of a designer. His initial proposal for the World Trade Center memorial could best be described as thoughtful and breathtaking.

People look funny. We all have the same basic facial features, but even then, it’s incredible how even just a slight size difference in someone’s honker can set them oceans apart from the next Joe Schmoe. Wilfred Wood noticed these curious anomalies, too. Part caricature, part figments of his imagination and part ideas gotten while working out, his sculpted interpretations of people, animals and creatures are his personal examination of the world’s individuals. Ordinary people on the street, contortionists, the obese — the British artist doesn’t have a prejudice. Wood first sketches his idea before shaping each rotund character from polymer clay and then painting it. The final piece is amusing, bringing with it a dab of innocence we recognize as a winning childhood quality. With Wood’s work, you learn to appreciate all our differences, which leads me to believe that having a big nose isn’t so bad after all. OK, well, not so huge.

If you liked the deconstructed book sculptures by Brian Dettmer we featured a few months ago, check out Georgia Russell’s work; like Dettmer, the Scottish artist also uses a scalpel to carve into old books, maps, photographs and newspapers, giving them new life, but her special handiwork instead leaves behind a beautiful, distinct fray of wisps and textures. It’s a little bit like Edward Scissorhands meets the output from a paper shredder. She mounts her works inside acrylic boxes so they’re protected, and in the cases of books that have more elaborate cutting, the pieces are inventively preserved inside a bell jar, perhaps as a reference to their organic beginnings. Russell’s art is currently on display at London gallery England & Co, so make an effort to catch it if you’re in town.

The concept of a terrarium, and the idea of creating an entirely independent eco-system has always intrigued me, but it wasn’t until I saw the work of Paula Hayes that I became truly transfixed. Hayes, born in Concord, Massachusetts received her BS from Skidmore College and MFA from Parsons School of Design in NYC. Her biography boasts lectures and exhibits worldwide. The terrariums are built inside impeccably-clear blown glass tear drops. We stumbled on her work in a gallery a few blocks from the Design Miami event , and encourage anyone in the area to drop in and take a peak.

I’m absolutely blown away as browsing the intricate paper work of Danish artist Peter Callesen. The series called ‘Papercut’ shows off an amazing attention to detail (and patience) with nothing but Acid-free A4 sized paper and glue. This piece is entitled ‘Distant Wish.’ Be sure to check out his whole portfolio, it’s very, very impressive.

These are Storytelling Crayons, carved meticulously to show the absolute finest details of honor, courage, and sometimes humor in the characters faces. The artist Diem Chau was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1979, and says “I consider myself an artist whose medium is stories, especially those that are primarily passed on orally. Coming from a nomadic childhood, what few possessions my family had were necessities. The things of greatest value to us were stories contributed by friends and family. Embedded in these stories are connections to the past, our culture and an occasional escape from reality.” Check out the dozens of carved crayons, pictures, illustrations and beautiful work at Diem’s site.

Korean artist Gwon O-sang calls his work a new method of playing with illusion and reality. We agree– his 3 dimensional paper sculptures are mind boggling. You can read an interview of him here or an in-depth article here. The sculpture on the left, Demand, is composed of 140 pieces, in the center is Fear, made up of 280 pieces and Difference, composed of 1800 pieces for Error C-prints. Go check out larger photos of his work to really understand how detailed this is! Via vvork

Anyone reading this blog for a while knows we have a special appreciation for robots– Especially breakdancing robots. We also have a special place in our hearts for robots made from found objects like the ones above designed by artist Mike Heisler– he prefers to call them his Slobots. There are about a dozen Slobots to check out on his site, many for sale at fairly affordable (remember this is original art!) prices. We’re going to go back to reading How to Survive a Robot Uprising now, gasp!

My German is (still) rusty, but that doesn’t stop me from totally admiring Markus Hofer’s unique and borderline genius work. Due to the language barrier (any German readers want to offer a translation of his about page?), I can’t tell you much about him. Simply put, his art, like the spray can sculpture above, makes us look at the world with an entirely different perception. Check out his portfolio, it’s great.

After several years of traditional drawing and painting, artist Danny Murphy decided to parlay his way into 3D artwork as an alternative way of expression. His sculptures are made from Strathmore Bristol papers– cutting, bending and gluing the three-dimensional forms together until the desired shape, often a butterfly, is formed. He uses acrylic washed to stain and varnish each piece, forcing light, shadow, and a bit of realism to each piece. His portfolio, for whatever reason is full of butterflies in funny places: Inside tins, atop Starbucks cups and in cages. Very nice work!

Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror exhibition opens tomorrow Tuesday, September 19th at Rockefeller Center. Our friends over at Tumi sponsored the exhibition and just launched a ‘Tumi Quiz‘, which can be played either by SMS, web browser on a cell phone (WAP) or on the Tumi site. Seventy prizes will be awarded including lots of great luggage, Tumi gear and a luxury vacation to the Caribbean. The sculpture will be up from September 19th through the 27th of October, 2006. This looks to be an absolutely gorgeous sculpture (23 tons and 35 feet in diameter), go check it out if you’re in NYC!