Mark McGowan (performance artist)

Mark McGowan is a UK-based performance artist currently working at the Camberwell College of Arts, who has entered the news a number of times for his unconventional approach to public protest and demonstration. He grew up in Peckham, on the North Peckham Estate,^[1] and has a degree in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Art.^[2]

Performance art

McGowan has made several notable stunts and self-declared "protests" including,

• Sitting in a bathtub full of baked beans with chips up his nose and sausages around his head, claiming to be the defender of the full English breakfast
• Cooking and eating a fox to highlight the plight of "crackheads".
• Arranging miniature models of Abu Ghraib prison in the shape of a Swedish teenager.
• Lying prone in New Street, Birmingham (a pedestrianised area) dressed as a soldier.
• Crawling the streets of Manhattan dressed up as and wearing a mask of US President George W. Bush and a "Kick My Ass" sign on his back
• Eating chunks of a Corgi dog in protest against Prince Philip for hunting foxes.
• Additionally he also publicizes other 'protests' which appear to have been impossible or unlikely for him to have undertaken. These include dragging a full sized London bus with his toe, and rolling a peanut from London's Goldsmiths College to 10 Downing Street using only his nose.
• On 29 November 2008, he performed a re-enactment of the "assassination" of Jean-Charles de Menezes by the Metropolitan Police, outside Stockwell Underground station.^[3][4]

Vandalism accusation

In April 2005 McGowan once more gained publicity after being accused of 'keying' cars in a number of cities, a practice involving the scratching of cars using a key. This attracted the attention of the police, though McGowan defended his actions in a television interview on Channel 4 News by stating that his actions had become "compulsive-obsessive" and that "I [McGowan] suppose it's like a social experiment testing why people do it." He also started dressing as a priest at this time.

Water wastage

He was back in the news in July 2005 for his installation "The Running Tap", where he left the water running in the backroom kitchen of a London gallery to protest leakage problems with London's private water company, Thames Water. His installation used 9,200 imperial gallons (42,000 L) of water a day, and if left on for a full year as he intended, would have used 3.9 million imperial gallons (18,000 m³) of water and cost £11,400 ($23,320). It was turned off several times by protesters of the protest. McGowan turned the tap off for good on 29 July following threats of legal action from the water company.

Burning effigy

During the Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK) incident where Jade Goody was shown making racist comments, and bullying of a 'house mate' Shilpa Shetty, McGowan publicised an event in support of Goody. On his website he claimed that an effigy of Shilpa would be burned by supporters outside Bermondsey tube station. McGowan later deleted these statements and announced on his site that the protest had been cancelled, probably due to the website being cited by internet forums.

References

1. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/my_london/mylondon_mark_mcgowan.shtml
2. ^ "Running on empty". The Guardian (London). 7 July 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1523009,00.html. Retrieved 12 May 2010. 
3. ^ "Jean Charles de Menezes shooting show outside Stockwell Tube station". Thisislocallondon. 28 November 2008. http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/3933427.Jean_Charles_de_Menezes_shooting_show_outside_Tube_station/. 
4. ^ Jarvis, Alice-Azania (28 November 2008). "Pandora: Artistic response to de Menezes death". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pandora/pandora-artistic-response-to-de-menezes-death-1038861.html. Retrieved 12 May 2010. 

External links

• Mark McGowan homepage

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