Plinth sculpture nears completion

This is the first picture of the giant sculpture chosen for temporary residence of the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Work on artist Marc Quinn's statue, Alison Lapper Pregnant, is well under way at a studio in Tuscany. Ms Lapper's giant marble head is complete and Mr Quinn says the body will be finished by the end of August.

The sculpture, which will be 11ft 6in tall and weigh 13 tonnes, will then be shipped to London for its grand unveiling on 15 September.

The statue's subject, Alison Lapper - whose physical condition results from a congenital disorder called phocomelia - sat for her friend when she was eight months pregnant.

Mr Quinn, 40, said: "It is very exciting to see it take form, to feel its scale and to think that it's going to be in Trafalgar Square for 18 months"

There was a fierce debate last year when Mayor Ken Livingstone's fourth plinth commissioning group produced a shortlist of six works of art for the space.

The decision to select Mr Quinn's work and Thomas Schutte's Hotel For The Birds as the first two temporary installations was defended by the group's chairman, National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne, who said: "It was an artistic judgment."

By the end of the summer Londoners will have the chance to judge for themselves, but the Mayor seems confident. Mr Livingstone said: "I love Alison Lapper Pregnant. It is a bold, modern and complex work that challenges people's notions of beauty and disability."

Ms Lapper, who gave birth to son Parys shortly after sitting for Mr Quinn, said: "I regard it as a modern tribute to femininity, disability and motherhood. It is so rare to see disability in everyday life - let alone naked, pregnant and proud."

The statue was due for installation this spring but was delayed after organisers failed to find a private sponsor. The Mayor's office had to underwrite the project with £195,000 to prevent its collapse. The delay, however, was a blessing as Mr Quinn encountereda problem almost as soon as he began work creating the new full size version of his sculpture - a shortage of the right, white marble.

It took four months to find a 20-tonne block of white marble big enough. Mr Quinn said: "I felt that the square could do with some femininity, linking with Boudicca near the Houses of Parliament. Alison's statue could represent a new model of female heroism."