May 30, 2007

Performance artist and activist Mark McGowan ate a corgi last night. He was protesting a January hunt where Prince Phillip apparently beat a fox to death with a stick and kicked it. I don't see the connection, personally. The RSPCA found that the fox did not suffer unnecessarily, but McGowan is presumably claiming favouritism toward the Royals.
  • Or favoritism toward certain animals. The Royals pamper their corgis but hunt foxes. I think his point may be that if one animal is deserving of respect or disrespect, so is the other.
  • The dog was already dead and was cooked. It's not like he brutalized the thing. People eat dogs all the time.
  • First thought: "Claims to be calling attention to the plight of the fox, but seems more like he's calling attention to himself."
  • He also ate a swan in another performance piece. Maybe he wants to write a book on weird things he ate? My thoughts were along the same lines as briank. False analogy. You're probably right though, TUM. Damn you!
  • but seems more like he's calling attention to himself Which is the entire point of being a "performance artist", it seems to me.
  • *eagerly anticipates a recycling of arguments from the rat throwie thread*
  • Seeing as how swans are the property of the Crown, he could have gotten himself into real trouble. Or maybe he did. Dunno.
  • Which is the entire point of being a "performance artist", it seems to me. Well then he should stop with the "I'm calling attention to the foxes" BS, it seems to me.
  • Agreed.
  • Performance artist = WANKER And I've met plenty.
  • Takes one to know one, or so I've heard. A performance artist, that is.
  • rat throwie Isn't he that MetaFilter guy?
  • He should have eaten Prince Phillip instead.
  • art noun Pronunciation: 'ärt 4 a : the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced
  • Wanker or not, it doesn't hurt to call attention to this sort of hypocrisy no matter what your forté. This brings a lot more attention to the issue (yeah, yeah, and to the wanker - what-evar) than a letter to The Times.
  • it must be asked: how does one prepare Corgi? turned on a spit? stewed? in some kind of pie? or just grilled on a bun?
  • Look - Yoko Ono was involved. Enough said, methinks. NEXT!
  • Liverpudlians hate Yoko Ono as much as they love dogs in shawls.
  • There's not much leg meat to a corgi, so I'm guessing you just fillet them and then grill, maybe with a nice Asian spice rub.
  • AND THE SAME TO YOKO! Tone deaf charlatan that she is.
  • So his performance art consisted of eating a minced dog...on the radio???
  • homunculus FTW
  • No - lets give the win to Yoko for being a gozzy talent-vacuum who was shit 40 years ago but made a lucky marriage and has dined out (on corgies) on it ever since.
  • Rather like Philip!
  • McGowan is so immensely talentless its quite impressive 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". Laying prone in New Street, Birmingham (a pedestrianised area) dressed as a solider. 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 What wit! What insight! (saying that, I quite liked how angry people got over his running tap piece, where he left a tap running in his garage for a month)
  • I'm kind of unimpressed by his performance. I prefer more showmanship from people who claim to be performers. Or any showmanship. Also, he didn't say anything about what eating a corgi was like - is it tender? Tough? gamy? I don't actually like gamey meat. Oh, sorry, the next link does have a description. He says it was bad, but he is a vegetarian. That would be like asking my teetotaller husband who hates the taste of alcohol to judge wines.
  • Tastes like...Hitler.
  • IIRC, I tripped over a squirrel this morning.
  • Wrap it up and send it along to him TUM!
  • Wait...he ate a fox?
  • Na, he's going to chew on it squirming. "...activist Mark McGowan is to eat a Corgi dog live... " Says right there in the article: live. Oh, live TV? Well, dang, that's not nearly as interesting. Dang journalists can't get anything right. It doesn't matter how they cook it... IT TASTES LIKE CHICKEN. *looks around Am I the first?
  • A) Kit is right. About performance "artists," I mean. (Don't get me wrong - almost every friend I've made in this decade has a BFA in illustration or design. My prejudice is solely related to performance art.) B) The appropriate reaction to fox hunting by the royal family or anyone else is to protest fox hunting - bodily, if you want to. Don't worry, the horses probably won't trample you. The appropriate reaction is NOT to victimize another animal (it's not even ONE of the corgis that was privileged over the poor foxes!). People do eat dogs, yeah, but McGowan doesn't have the excuse of coming from a dog-eating culture. This really sickens me. I'd punch the guy in the face, if given a chance. (I think I need to wake up my Sheltie and give her a hug.)
  • Ah - sweet vindication. *puts up 'The Art Historian is IN' sign*
  • I used to be a volunteer usher at theatre that hosted a performance art festival. I have never had to deal with so many obnoxious, humourless, vile, patronising wastes of oxygen. Performance artists ... grrrrrrrrr The only bright spot was a video installation of someone pushing peas up their nose with their tongue. Not sure if it was art but it was hours of mind numbing fun.
  • ... OK, so maybe not the punch in the face, since I see on further reading that the dog "died on a breeding farm" (and presumably wasn't killed for the purpose). I thought I'd come back and post that I'd noticed that bit, to save someone else from posting to point it out to me. But still, I think it's a really repellent and ineffective protest.
  • No, I rule the punch in the face still stands. Proceed! *bangs gavel thingy*
  • You could just use the gavel thingy. ;) (hell is where we're all of us going. including, probably, the fox killers and the corgi muncher, so we can all battle it out there, right?)
  • I wasn't able to watch with audio, so perhaps I am losing a lot of what his message is *suppose* to be - - but it seemed like a rather sick joke to me. And now I can't help but to imagine a virulent PETA activist - on the street with banners and pictures depicting animal cruelty, with a portable BBQ on the side grilling up some fresh mink and chimp shish kabobs...
  • Oh snap! I so wanted to call VerbMinx on that performance "artists" statement. Heck, just cause it was clarified, why not go for the cranky anyway? VERBMINX, WILL YA RTFA ALREADY!!? Damn, that felt good. And NO it isn't art. It may be ham dog, but it's not art*. *references ancient Ham is not art thread argument from mists of MonkeyTime
  • *Prepares to defend verbminx's honour* *gets distracted by pie*
  • Dammit! Every time I leave a pie cooling in the window, the ghosts get it!
  • And it was dogmincemeat, too!
  • Booooooo!