She came to fame by displaying a bed strewn with soiled underwear, stained sheets and a used condom at Tate Britain. Now Tracey Emin’s work could go on show in Trafalgar Square.

Emin is one of the six artists shortlisted to provide the next sculpture to be put on show on the Fourth Plinth in the northwest corner of the open space in the heart of London.

About £300,000 of taxpayers’ money is being spent on the project.

The others on the shortlist include Jeremy Deller, who won the Turner Prize in 2004 for placing a copy of Lord Hutton’s 328-page report into the death of the Iraq weapons expert David Kelly on a dining-table, and Yinka Shonibare, whose works have featured headless dummies having sex.

They face competition from Antony Gormley, who built a snowman in the Arctic with money from the British taxpayer - even though only a few polar bears would see it; Anish Kapoor, who built a 155-metre long structure of blood-red fabric and black steel at Tate Modern; and Bob & Rob-erta Smith, the husband-and-wife team who paint slogans on reclaimed timber and old bits of board.

The shortlist was drawn up by the Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, chaired by Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, who said that they had contacted the artists, asking them to come up with an initial proposal.

The artists will be required to produce a small three-dimensional model of their creations which will go on display at the National Gallery on January 9. One of the artists’ proposals will be selected in the spring to go on public view opposite the square’s statues of Lord Nelson, General Charles Napier, Major General Sir Henry Havelock and George IV.

The commission is part of a series of changing displays for the plinth, which had stood bare for 158 years until the previous chairman of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Prue Leith, came up with the idea of using it as a showcase for modern works of art.

Although members of the public had suggested statues of Nelson Man-dela, Diana, Princess of Wales, Shake-speare or even a British bulldog, the rolling programme of temporary sculptures was introduced instead.

Each sculpture remains on the plinth for 18 months as part of a 20-year series of displays.

Just like the Turner Prize, the choice of sculpture for the “empty” plinth has become no stranger to controversy. Two years ago Marc Quinn - who made his name with a cast of his own head using nine pints of his blood - unveiled a marble image of the nude and heavily pregnant body of the artist Alison Lapper, who was born with no arms and shortened legs.

In 2001 Rachel Whiteread erected a clear-resin inverted copy of the empty plinth, which members of the public ridiculed as looking like a dirty, empty fishtank.

The latest work to stand on the plinth, Model for a Hotel 2007 by Thomas Schütte, is a translucent, architectural model of a 21-storey building that has been likened to a “dog’s breakfast”.

Mr Nairne said: “The Fourth Plinth Commission is the most high-profile public art programme in the UK and has established an international reputation. The Commissioning group is excited by the shortlist, which represents leading artists of different generations and we look forward to revealing the proposed works in 2008.”

He said that making a sculpture that could last 18 months on an outdoor plinth was so complex that it could be done only by an artist “with a certain level of expertise and knowledge”.

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said yesterday: “The Fourth Plinth commissions have become an integral part of the vision for Trafalgar Square, as a vibrant, accessible public space in the heart of London.”

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