Poet makes London steel protest

Linda Robinson read a short story from the plinth dedicated to the Corus workers.

A Teesside woman turned a public artwork in central London into a temporary protest against the planned mothballing of Teesside steelworks.

Antony Gormley's Forth Plinth art project saw a different person standing on the plinth every hour for 24 hours a day over 100 days.

Among them was writer Linda Robinson from Teesside. Her family has three generations in the steel industry.

She performed a poem about Teesside steel while on the plinth.

Creating 2,400 living artworks

Antony Gormley explains the idea behind his work

Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth has been empty ever since it was built 1841. The project ran out of money before the statue of a horse it was intended to carry could be made.

Since 1998 the plinth has been home to a series of temporary artworks. Antony Gormley's commission to fill the plinth with members of the public began on 6 July.

Each individual was fork-lifted up 25ft to spend their hour in full view, with no banister or barrier to protect them other than a safety net skirting the plinth.

Linda was hoisted onto the plinth as a living artwork at 3pm on 26 August.

As part of her performance she read her poem, Steel River to raise awareness in the capital of the threat to Teesside's steel industry.

A heritage under threat

The poem's called Steel River and explores the heritage of steel here on Teesside Linda Robinson

Up to 2,000 staff jobs and 1,000 contract workers' jobs at the Teesside Cast Products factory are at risk after an international consortium pulled out of a ten year deal to buy its steel.

If the plant closes, it will mark an end to 150 years of steel production on the Tees, during which the area built world-famous monuments such as Sydney Harbour Bridge, Victoria Falls Bridge and the Wembley Arch.

One of Linda's brothers still works at the threatened Corus steelworks on Teesside; another has been made redundant from a company that supplied the works.

Her family's steel credentials though go back much farther. "My father was a steelworker and my great-grandfather was a charger driver after World war One at Hartlepool steelworks."