The supermodel who's larger than life

It's a prospect to strike fear into the hearts of airport staff and personal assistants everywhere: Naomi Campbell, but 30ft tall – more than twice the height of a double-decker bus.

The hot-tempered Campbell is to be immortalised in a series of sculptures that will create a lasting, if controversial, monument to her status. She has been posing for the photographer Nick Knight, who is using three-dimensional scanners to create the sculptures.

Campbell ranks among a handful of supermodels who can be identified purely by their first names. But in her case, a reputation for intemperate behaviour tends to overshadow her work on the catwalk. She was arrested on a plane last month after her complaints at the loss of her luggage during the Heathrow terminal 5 fiasco were deemed too vociferous. She was also ordered to attend anger-management classes by a US court after admitting throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper in a fit of temper.

Despite this, Campbell has remained one of the most popular British models of her generation, with perhaps only Kate Moss exceeding her fame. Knight said he wanted to create a unique sculpture of "one of the most famous and beautiful women in the world".

He said: "Photography is changing completely, and one of the things that's doing this is 3-D scanning. You get a 360-degree view of her, and because it's all digital, that data can be used to output real objects. You can lay one image over another and create sculptures that would never have been conceived if you were chipping away at marble."

He scanned Campbell "straddling the barrel of a large tank" which will form one sculpture. Another will be a "circle of three Naomis, like The Three Graces", but designed to be viewed from within the circle and in a darkened room.

Mr Knight is still to decide what material to use for the sculptures, with alabaster and glass fibre both possible. "When you are modelling one of the most beautiful women in the world, the choice of materials is important," he said.

He hopes to have the sculpture ready by the end of the year but is still considering how it will be unveiled. When asked if it could be installed at the entrance to Terminal 5, as a symbol of the nation's rage over lost baggage and delayed flights, he simply laughed.

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