Politics, Performance Art and David Cameron – An interview with Mark McGowan

Politics, Performance Art and David Cameron – An interview with Mark McGowan

05 May, 2010
by: Tom Jeffreys

From Thursday, Mark McGowan plans to prostrate himself 10,000 times in front of an image of David Cameron. Tom Jeffreys is intrigued.

With the election looming, the art world has got political. Last week we reported on an art auction/election (which Nick Clegg is now winning easily) and a pro-Labour poster campaign involving the likes of Antony Gormley, Mark Wallinger and Liam Gillick. Now infamous artist Mark McGowan has announced his latest performance – 10,000 Prostrations for David Cameron. 

McGowan is the guy who's become notorious for carrying out bizarre and highly public activities (he's eaten a corgi, keyed cars, put old ladies in cardboard space rockets and re-enacted the death of Jade Goody) all in the name of art. From Thursday, the day of the UK election, McGowan will prostrate himself 10,000 times outside 10 Downing Street in front of a photograph of David Cameron. Oddly, given all the things he's done in the past, it's this that – in some circles at least – is causing the most controversy.

Over the phone I ask him about the response of the contemporary art world, a traditionally left-leaning bunch. “They're freaking out,” he says, “absolutely freaking out.” Mark mentions a message he received from artist and writer Dave Beech, who'd previously championed Mark's work. It's pretty brutal stuff: “This moronic attention-seeking campaign to support Cameron is the worst thing you've done... Irony cannot save you... pathetic, cynical... spineless, unprincipled and crass. I call on all curators, critics, artists and funders to boycott your work and I pledge to stand against you at every opportunity. You, Cameron and all your Conservative friends can all rot in hell.”

I wonder what a message like that does to someone. “I was a little bit sad, but at the same time quite positive that I was able to move somebody. Because I think that's what art's about isn't it? If you go into a gallery what do you want? I want to go in and I want to feel emotional. I want to laugh or I want to cry. I don't just want to look at a load of trees, or paintings of trees or something.”

So why is he doing this? “I just want to look at how one person can create a wave of enthusiasm for David Cameron,” Mark explains, “and this is a sign of reverence. He's going to be our Prime Minister – I'm sure he's going to do it. We lampoon and lambast our prime ministers and politicians and I think they should have a bit more respect.”

But why Cameron specifically? “I really like David and I think the Tories have a really good message. The idea of the Big Society is a kind of role-reversal. Whereas New Labour came in and went really right-wing, I think the Conservatives are moving left. Big Society is about getting 16 year-olds to do military service, it's about people putting things back into the community. It's obviously going to be a struggle – but look at Boris Johnson, I think he's doing really good.”

As well as the 10,000 prostrations – for which McGowan has been in training for a month – he's also been feverishly posting pro-Tory messages on his Facebook page (“Let the people sing.... David, David, David Cameron”) and producing videos on YouTube, in which he wears dark shades and implores viewers to vote Conservative. There's something innately ridiculous here – as, I think, there is in much of Mark's work. But he insists otherwise. “I never joke,” he states quite categorically. “I don't think I ever joke. I think if you look at the way that maybe I do something – it can be seen as a little bit of, um, satire? And some people have got problems with that. But if you see people when they talk about serious things – whether it's about people getting killed in wars or whether it's about you know...something that moves people... it's often satire that comes in and it just cuts it, and it shows things for what they are. I think it's quite powerful.”

It's funny – hitherto I'd always imagined McGowan was constantly cocking a snook at a media-driven society, swathed in irony and laughing at the art world. But talking to him, it seems that he really is genuine. “I get emotional doing it,” he admits in a melancholic tone. “Often in the evening after I do performances and things, I cry. Performance art is shame-based – you're doing something and people are looking at it, and it's open for criticism. And that can hurt.”

And yet, periodically throughout the half-hour phone interview, a loud “baaaaa” sound occurs. Perhaps it's just the noise his phone makes when he gets a text or something, but it contributes to my uncertainty over what level to take McGowan's work. For all his assertions of simplicity – and certainly his work is bold and clear – there are layers here, layers of complexity that prevent a single interpretation one way or the other. Perhaps that is why his pro-Cameron stance is so interesting, and why the art world is so melodramatically outraged.

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Tom Jeffreys