It is Paul McFarlane’s first major work of art as a forklift truck driver. There have been other projects since he qualified as a forklift operator on building sites across southeast England but none of those are likely to provoke the same anger among traditionalist art critics.

Starting at 9am today and for the next 100 days, 2,400 people will take it in turns to occupy the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for one hour as part of Antony Gormley’s sculpture One And Other.

Mr McFarlane, 39, is one of eight forklift truck drivers who will lift each participant into place and bring them down again when their hour is up.

Skilled workers have previously played a behind-the-scenes role in British art history. Like the digger driver who dug the foundations for Gormley’s Angel Of The North, the builder who constructed Rachael Whiteread’s inside-out house, or the man who killed Damian Hirst’s cow, they have remained largely unknown. In One And Other, however, the forklift drivers will have a high profile and highly visible role in the art work itself.

In recent weeks Mr McFarlane and his fellow drivers have been rehearsing furiously for what art critics will regard as a piece of performance art and builders will recognise as an essential manoeuvre using what is properly called a telescopic handler.

“We don’t want to shoot them up there like a fairground ride,” he said, the morning after a rehearsal that went on till after midnight. A cabin in Trafalgar Square will serve as a “green room” for those waiting their turn to appear on the plinth. From there they will step into a basket on the front end loader of Mr McFarlane’s JCB loadall 535-95 and be carried aloft to the plinth. “We stop at the side of the plinth and that’s where I have to use all of my skills, smoothly and confidently lifting them into place,” said Mr McFarlane. “Afterwards I do the whole process in reverse.”

To help Mr McFarlane and his fellow drivers prepare for this public exhibition of fork lifting a replica of the northwest corner of Trafalgar Square was built in a rigging yard in a village in Northamptonshire, complete with a precise model of the plinth and pedestrians walking back and forth across it to simulate crowds. They also received a briefing from Gormley on his vision for the sculpture.

“I have never been in a work of art before,” said Mr McFarlane. “Forklift truck drivers are not often in the spotlight like this.”

His last work was on a construction site in Ashford in Kent and involved lifting quantities of granite and marble for an extension to a public building. He has also worked with mortar, brick and timber and occasionally lifted scaffolders. He most frequently works in the film industry bringing in rigging and film equipment.

His artistic influences are mainly French. “I love French painters” he said. “I love the Impressionists.” On holiday a few years ago he got into an argument about Picasso. “I think he’s overrated,” he said.

But he is a huge fan of Vincent Van Gogh and names the artist’s lesser known study of a crustacean, Crab On Its Back, as his favourite painting. “I wouldn’t say I follow one school in particular,” he said.

His forklift truck driving influences can be traced to a single school, however. He received formal tuition at Ritchie’s Training Centre in Glasgow, which also offers courses in the driving of excavators, tower cranes and dumper trucks.

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