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SomeOneUK

SomeOneUK

United Kingdom
June 2004

JUL 27, 2005 01:49 PM

An artist who installed a running tap as a display has turned the tap off after the water company threatened to cut off the galleries water supply and take legal action. The tap had poured 800,000 litres down the drain, during one of the biggest droughts in years.

"Well that's it, isn't it?" Mark McGowan said miserably after a formal notice from Thames Water that if he does not turn the tap off, it will cut off the water to the entire gallery. "One way or another, I reckon it will be gone by Thursday.

"The people in the gallery are really, really nice, and they're a bit worried, particularly about having no water in the toilet, which I can understand."

[...]

Thames Water, already facing fierce criticism over the worst leakage from broken pipes of any water company in the country, was not amused.

The Running Tap provoked passionate reactions - a few supporters and many more enraged. One sent a birthday card with the warning inside that if the tap was not turned off, the gallery would be blown up.

The irony was that in the course of producing the work, McGowan has become messianic about water wastage: yesterday he spluttered with outrage about people washing their teeth or cleaning vegetables under a running tap. At the weekend he denounced a family member for running the washing machine daily for only a handful of clothes.

Meanwhile, a display in Devon was stolen, presumed drunk:

The sculpture, a plastic bottle of water full of melted ice from the Antarctic, was intended to be a telling comment on the dangers of global warming.

But one light-fingered, and presumably thirsty, visitor to the exhibition may have missed the point.

Rather than musing on the hazards that will be created if the icecaps melt, the visitor is believed to have drunk the piece.

[...]

The sculpture was the creation of the American-born artist and writer Wayne Hill. He brought back two litres of melt water from the west Antarctic and designed a bottle to hold it.

A label on the bottle described where the water was from and included the words: "Weapon of Mass Destruction", because of the devastation melting ice caps could create. The piece was displayed in its own room at the literary festival earlier this month.

Jeff_Fries

Jeff_Fries

Humptulips, WA
September 2003

JUL 28, 2005 03:17 AM

I really like the second half of this article. I wish more people ruined art exhibits by taking them literally.

JohnFM1

JohnFM1

United Kingdom
May 2004

JUL 28, 2005 03:37 AM

I never got why the "artist" didnt just recirculate a gallon or so of water through the tap.

It still would have looked like a running tap....



[Edited on Jul 28, 2005 by JohnFM1]

MistressMissy

mistressmissy

Grand Rapids, MI
March 2003

JUL 28, 2005 03:55 AM

JohnFM1 said:
I never got why the "artist" didnt just recirculate a gallon or so of water through the tap.

It still would have looked like a running tap....




thats exactly what i was thinking.

JohnFM1

JohnFM1

United Kingdom
May 2004

JUL 28, 2005 04:00 AM

Now this is art

tech29

tech29

I'm lost
July 2004

JUL 28, 2005 04:42 AM

How about set up a system were the water is recyceled through the art work . COMMON SENSE yes/no maybe. wink The Gallery is most at fault for not stipulating that this is how it must be done. The artist is a fucking wanker, waste the most precious commodity's on Earth for your faux ART. FFS I have seen that trick at side shows since i was a kid .....ITS NOT ART. The artist should be charged with being stupid. tongue

hermetica

hermetica

Cook Islands
January 2004

JUL 28, 2005 07:02 AM

What a dumbass. The sad thing is, he now got a whole whack of publicity and become some sort bad boy artist with a following. whatever

PointBlank

PointBlank

New York, NY
November 2004

JUL 28, 2005 07:18 AM

SomeOneUK said:
[

: yesterday he spluttered with outrage about people washing their teeth or cleaning vegetables under a running tap. .


For the last time, Brits: Washing your teeth under a tap is not enough! You have to brush them as well. . .

frankjohnson

frankjohnson

I'm lost
November 2004

JUL 28, 2005 07:49 AM

PointBlank said:

SomeOneUK said:
[

: yesterday he spluttered with outrage about people washing their teeth or cleaning vegetables under a running tap. .


For the last time, Brits: Washing your teeth under a tap is not enough! You have to brush them as well. . .


But what if they're dentures?

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Palm Bay, FL
February 2003

JUL 28, 2005 07:54 AM

JohnFM1 said:
I never got why the "artist" didnt just recirculate a gallon or so of water through the tap.

It still would have looked like a running tap....



[Edited on Jul 28, 2005 by JohnFM1]



That was my first thought. Then I remembered how crazy artists can be. Oh, and common sense is dead.

frankjohnson

frankjohnson

I'm lost
November 2004

JUL 28, 2005 07:55 AM


I just had to add this, although I have a hell of a lot more respect for Duchamp.

CookiePuss

CookiePuss

Dinosaur, CO
November 2002

JUL 28, 2005 08:38 AM

What a waste (for the first article).
Why do people always ruin stuff (for the second)?

JuniorDeputy

JuniorDeputy

San Rafael, CA
July 2005

JUL 28, 2005 08:53 AM

frankjohnson said:

I just had to add this, although I have a hell of a lot more respect for Duchamp.



Duchamp rocks my world. Although, this is the second version of his urinal, because some shmuk broke the original.

DireChocobo

DireChocobo

Fairburn, GA
July 2004

JUL 28, 2005 10:16 AM

How in the bloody hell is a running tap a work of art?

FrankMask

FrankMask

Saint Paul, MN
June 2003

JUL 28, 2005 10:27 AM

If it is intended to be symbolic of how the world is wasting water, yet it is itself wasting water when the simplest thing in the world would be to construct a small pump, then it is not art.

Radd

radd

Madison, WI
OLD SKOOL

JUL 28, 2005 10:46 AM

Pure genious. By actually wasting water it provoked a much stronger emotional response from a lot of people. What's more is the publicity. Certainly those who might have never heard his name know it now, right?

Using recycled water as people have suggested would not have achived the same effect. What speaks louder, a man lighting himself on fire in protest, or a man who films himself standing in a room, then uses CG effects to composite a fire effect over himself...in protest. Yeah, not the same.

Of course it is also stupid. Wasting water in a drought. It's no wonder this piece was shut down, in fact one had to expect it. You don't light yourself on fire then act surprised when you get burned, right?

I'm horribly amused, myself.

jackalnoir

jackalnoir

Raleigh, NC
January 2005

JUL 28, 2005 02:31 PM

How ironic. On both accounts.

People need to take a more active role in art. We should follow Banksy's idea of creating our own art, and placing it in museums, because who is the true judge of art and beauty?

foolish_yeti

foolish_yeti

Canada
January 2005

JUL 28, 2005 02:50 PM

Radd said:
Pure genious. By actually wasting water it provoked a much stronger emotional response from a lot of people. What's more is the publicity. Certainly those who might have never heard his name know it now, right?

Using recycled water as people have suggested would not have achived the same effect. What speaks louder, a man lighting himself on fire in protest, or a man who films himself standing in a room, then uses CG effects to composite a fire effect over himself...in protest. Yeah, not the same.

Of course it is also stupid. Wasting water in a drought. It's no wonder this piece was shut down, in fact one had to expect it. You don't light yourself on fire then act surprised when you get burned, right?

I'm horribly amused, myself.



Exactly...at least somebody got it. Do you think people loved Duchamp's fountain? It's now touted as a masterpiece, but sure didn't go down that way. Also, not quite sure it was broken...as far as I know most places list it as lost 'cause nobody really knows what happened to it. The idea behind the art is just as important as the piece itself...in this case even more important. You can't fake waste water....it wouldn't piss people off.

PatrickY

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA
December 2003

JUL 28, 2005 03:13 PM

dkmfc said:
I'll fill in some pseudo-intellectual hippie bullshit reason for doing it later.
right now, I gotta go make my art.



Don't forget to wipe.

You know, to cleanse the artistic soul for the next art deposit.

Cash

Cash

USA
OLD SKOOL

JUL 28, 2005 03:28 PM

good thinking, dkmfc. Now that you mention it...I left some art behind the dumpster this morning.

[Edited on Jul 28, 2005 by Cash]

misguidedd

misguidedd

Edmonton, AB
November 2003

JUL 28, 2005 04:18 PM

if you follow that link to the guardian article, it links to a guardian profile on the artist and the work, in which it says:


The water company has even offered to recycle McGowan's wasted water, but he's having none of it. "What? Install a pump and make a fountain? Then you wouldn't be able to say that it's wasting water, which would defeat the whole object. The wastage is an integral part of the art."

Midnyte

Midnyte

SUICIDEGIRL

Arizona, USA

JUL 28, 2005 04:35 PM

Radd said:
Pure genious. By actually wasting water it provoked a much stronger emotional response from a lot of people. What's more is the publicity. Certainly those who might have never heard his name know it now, right?

Using recycled water as people have suggested would not have achived the same effect. What speaks louder, a man lighting himself on fire in protest, or a man who films himself standing in a room, then uses CG effects to composite a fire effect over himself...in protest. Yeah, not the same.

Of course it is also stupid. Wasting water in a drought. It's no wonder this piece was shut down, in fact one had to expect it. You don't light yourself on fire then act surprised when you get burned, right?

I'm horribly amused, myself.



Thank you!! Exactly.

abracadabra

abracadabra

Seattle, WA
April 2004

JUL 28, 2005 06:33 PM

it's funny to read the responses in this thread ...conceptual art is just that...it makes you think..this piece has done it's job...wasteful or not

Skurvash

Skurvash

Kailua, HI
July 2005

JUL 29, 2005 04:41 AM

Wasting 800,000 litres of water to say "Wasting water is bad" is like randomly killing a couple hundred strangers to say "Murder is bad" heh

JohnFM1

JohnFM1

United Kingdom
May 2004

JUL 29, 2005 06:56 AM

razorbladesonata said:
...conceptual art is just that...it makes you think..



Or its just a big joke

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