Art of darkness

‘Performance artist’ Mark McGowan – who jetted into Dublin this week to ‘pay homage’ to An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern – openly admits to being perceived as an ‘idiot’ within the art world!

It’s easy to agree with this assessment, given McGowan’s planned ‘art performance’ of dressing-up like Bertie and crawling on his hands and knees – pulling an incredible 300 kilos of potatoes, in a large bag attached to his leg by a piece of string – some four miles from Ballymun to Bertie’s constituency in Drumcondra,
Unfortunately, Hot Press goes to press on the day McGowan has planned to carry out his preposterous four-mile trip, so we're unable to accurately report if he fulfils his goal – of presenting the potatoes as a ‘gift’ to Bertie!
Speaking to Hot Press a few days before the event, the 37-year-old lecturer said: “I'm not sure how long the performance will take. It will definitely be a struggle, but I'm in training and, hopefully, it will be a fantastic art event. I’m hoping lots of people from the Ballymun area will come out and show their support. They might even line the route and give me a helping hand to carry the potatoes. After all, they will obviously be very heavy.”
Surely, this attention-seeking ‘art performance’ is little more than taking the piss?
Not so, argues the controversial artist, who once ate a dog in the name of ‘art’.
“The intention is to show the people of Ireland the difficulties and struggles of being the Irish leader,” says a straight-faced McGowan. “He has the weight of Ireland along with his own personal problems.I think people give Bertie Ahern a hard time but I, for one, believe him to be a wonderful man. Unfortunately, the Mahon Inquiry is very difficult for Bertie. I want to show the people of Ireland how hard it must be for him – he has always done his best.”
Even when badgered on the subject, the UK-based performer – whose parents are Irish – insists that it’s far from being tongue-in-cheek.
“My dad actually loves Bertie Ahern and I think he's been a brilliant leader of Ireland,” he enthuses. “He's probably the greatest living Irishman. He is an ordinary man and drinks in his local bar and I think the whip-round in the pub incident shows this…
“I'm really hoping that Bertie turns up to accept my gift. I’m even going to go past his favourite local pub, Fagan’s, near his constituency clinic. I've been in contact with his brother Maurice and have been told that he might be in the pub while I'm doing the event.”
McGowan, who works at the Camberwell College of Arts, has performed over 70 different crazy and sometimes controversial stunts, or ‘projects’ as he describes them himself, over the past seven years.
His craziest stunt was his extreme effort to find true love.
“I crawled on my hands and knees for 55 miles from London Bridge to Canterbury Cathedral. I had 18 boxes of chocolates tied around my wrists and ankles, a rose between my teeth and a big sign on my back saying, ‘Could you love me?’ I was looking for a girlfriend as the previous Christmas I was alone and had just two fish fingers.
“I started in 2001 and I've done over 70 projects, about one a month, sometimes two, but I'm always planning four or five projects in advance,” he continued, before adding matter-of-factly: “I also ate a small Corgi dog and scratched some cars with my keys.”
McGowan actually ate the dog live on air to protest against Prince Philip’s participation in fox-hunting. What did the dog taste like?
“It tasted like shit,” McGowan proffers. “I took three bites and actually spat out two of them. I only swallowed one piece and it was disgusting and smelt funny and was grey in colour. It had a horrible aftertaste.”
Asked if he had any ‘funny’ anecdotes about any of his performing projects, McGowan gave this deadpan reply: “I nailed my feet to a gallery wall in Camberwell, south-east London in a protest against leaves.”
McGowan is planning to monkey around for his next project in the sunny climes of Seville.
“I'm off to Spain, where I have a solo show at a gallery space, which is showing documentation of my work and I'm doing a performance in the main square near the cathedral. I'm dressing up as a monkey – a chimpanzee actually – and I have a sign around my neck which says, ‘Are all Spanish racists?!’ It’s looking at the Lewis Hamilton incident; Samuel Eto'o, a Barcelona player reduced to tears by monkey chanting; and the general attitude of Spanish people towards Afro-Carribean people.”