Taiwan News Online: http://www.etaiwannews.com/Life_Leisure/2005/07/26/1122347613.htm
Washington Times: http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20050727-105711-4946r.htm
http://www.madasafish.com/news/tabloid_bespoke.asp?aid=15000030&cat=quirky
http://www.londonist.com/archives/2005/07/art_on_tap.php
http://www.iol.co.za/?art_id=iol1120311657348W236
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1446422.html?menu=
http://xo.typepad.com/blog/art/

Private Eye 22 July - 4 Aug 2005
http://www.camberwellonline.co.uk/blog/
http://na.visitlondon.com/whats_on/title?titleID=ymcgmar1
http://www.designers-network.com/blog/?p=18#comments
http://www.vidi.hr/_kultura/index.php3
http://wap.fok.nl/pda/index.fok/55584
http://www.hln.be/hln/art/cache/kdskidsnieuws.html

Running on empty
Performance artist Mark Mc'Gowan is no stranger to wild stunts;
in one previous caper he tried to catapult a pensioner into space.
Now his latest work - leaving a tap running for a full year - has landed him in hot water.
Helen Pidd finds it hard to swallow

Thursday July 07 2005
The Guardian

Compared to Mark McGowan's previous performance pieces, his latest enterprise
seems relatively harmless. For an artist whose three-year career has included an
attempt to catapult a 76-year-old pensioner into space (to highlight the way in
which the young mistreat the old), walking backwards for 11 miles with a 27lb
turkey on his head while shouting at fat people (to draw attention to the
obesity epidemic), and scratching 50 shiny cars with his keys and photographing
the evidence (for reasons that have never been entirely clear), his decision to
leave a tap running for a year sounds almost anodyne. But McGowan's latest stunt
- wasting water in the backroom of a south London gallery - has caused the kind
of publicity he can only have dreamed of. It's a Shangri-la scenario for a man
whose art doesn't really exist unless people take notice of it.

For this, we can blame Thames Water. If it hadn't waded into the debate by
threatening Mc'Gowan with legal action if he didn't turn off the faucet straight
away, the story (and thus the art) would be dead, as they say, in the water. The
company's intervention, coming at a time of threatened hosepipe bans, kicked off
a spat with the artist and a debate about water wastage in the capital. It's
caused even more of a furore than the time Mc'Gowan ate a fox to draw attention
to the plight of crack addicts.

Yet speaking from the House Gallery in Camberwell, south London, the art world's
latest enfant terrible isn't looking quite as pleased with himself as you might
expect. That's perhaps because the first death threat arrived this week. "It was
an email from someone saying they were going to burn the gallery down," says
McGowan, a spacy character who is dressed in paint-splattered shorts and jumper
- an outfit to be attributed not to his artistic tendencies but the fact that he
makes his money as a builder and has to run off to do some scaffolding as soon
our interview is over.

And then there are the saboteurs. "People have come in and turned it off," says
McGowan, standing by the sink into which he estimates 200,000 litres of water
have already rushed (for this is no measly drip-drip-drip, but a full-on
torrent). "But that's OK, because I've been there to talk to them about it. The
piece is directed towards individuals. I've told them stuff like how you can
waste up to 100 litres of water doing your washing up under a running tap, to
draw attention to why I'm doing it."

There are two conflicting reasons the 37-year-old gives for the stunt. First, he
says his "sole intention is to create a really good art piece". Then he declares
it's all about environmental consciousness, and that he's succeeding in his "aim
to raise awareness of water wastage". That, incidentally, is because he has had
an email from someone who, for years, had been leaving a tap running "for up to
six hours a day" for their cat, and who has vowed to do it no longer after
hearing McGowan's justifications.

It was while habitually wasting water a few months ago that McGowan came up with
the idea. "I knew there was a water crisis looming, but there I was, doing my
dishes, washing my vegetables, shaving and brushing my teeth, all under a
running tap." While the rest of us might have been content changing our ways and
leaving it at that, McGowan approached the problem as he says he does everything
else in his life: it's important, it's interesting, now how can I make it art?

The result is both underwhelming and impressive, irritating and rather clever.
The nation's latest controversial artwork is an ordinary old tap, in an ordinary
old sink - no pedestal or glass case here - with two wobbly, hand-written signs
stuck with Blu-tack above it. One reads: "The Running Tap: Mark McGowan 28 June
2005 - 27 June 2006", the other: "If you find this tap off, please would you
turn it on and leave it on. Thanks."

It's impressive when you think about just how much water is swishing down the
drain. It's almost painful watching it. It's clever because I feel so guilty
witnessing the waste that I grab a mug and put 250ml to good use by glugging it.
And it's obvious why the stunt is irritating. A running tap? Art?

For the record, McGowan can paint. He sounds a little insulted when I insinuate
that he mustn't be able to. "I've got a degree in it, from the Camberwell
College of Art, and an MA from Goldsmiths," he says, adding that he's a visiting
lecturer at the former.

But despite these credentials, some people are unamused, including family and
friends, who are "embarrassed", says McGowan. And the man at Thames Water says
he has lost count of the number of "outraged" customers his office has dealt
with since McGowan hit the headlines. "He's made his point, we sympathise to a
certain extent with his cause, and now we're hoping we don't have to pursue this
through the courts," says Thames Water's Nick Tennant. "There are better ways of
drawing attention to the problems."

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."

One person who is very pleased indeed with the Running Tap is Sarah McIntyre,
part of the collective that runs the House Gallery. "I was a bit nervous at
first because I'm against wasting water, but I think it's a good cause. The
amount wasted can be justified because of the awareness raised," she says,
adding that visitor numbers have doubled in the past week, from a trickle to a
small stream. Plus it's a damn sight better than the other time McGowan
conducted an in-house action, sitting in a bath of cold baked beans for a
fortnight to celebrate the great English breakfast after a foreign friend
criticised our national fare. "He got so cold that his system went all funny and
he was weeing in the water. The place stank," shudders McIntyre.

There's no doubt that McGowan is a rather odd character; performance artists
generally are. But the big question is whether he is for real. Is it all done
with an arched, art school brow, or does he genuinely want to effect change with
his creations? Perhaps he is a brilliant actor, but speaking to him you don't
get the sense that this is all being done ironically. His slow, south London
monotone is earnest, and there are no sly winks to recognise the lunacy of the
situation. He comes out with sentences such as "When I tied up an old lady and
put her in a cupboard in Brixton market for two weeks" like you or I would
discuss the day's weather.

Whether the tap gets turned off early or not, we've probably not seen the back
of McGowan. His next stunt is pencilled in for August 10-24. "I'm going to
attempt to cartwheel the 57 miles from Brighton to London with two 12lb rocks
round my ankles and 18 strips of Brighton rock taped across my face," he says.
"It's part of the environment series, to highlight the number of people who
illegally take sacks of pebbles from the beach and put them in their gardens."
But is it art? Silly question. "To me," says McGowan, "everything is art."

A tap left running as a piece of art at a south London gallery has infuriated Thames Water, which is considering legal action to switch it off. Artist Mark McGowan said he intends to leave it running for a year at the House Gallery in Camberwell as a comment on how much water we all waste. Thames Water said it is a "flagrant waste" after such a dry spell. But Mr McGowan said the company itself wasted millions of litres of water through leaks, adding: "Mine's art".

The Running Tap was switched on, on Tuesday, at the House Gallery in Camberwell and has already been switched off twice by visitors who did not want to see the water wasted.

 We are all culpable, we all waste water and that includes Thames Water
- Artist Mark McGowan

Thames Water spokesman Nick Tennant told BBC News: "We think it is irresponsible and counter productive.
"We have gone through one of the driest winters on record and are in the eighth successive month of below-average rainfall.
"We think we have grounds to take legal action and do intend to do so if we can."

 Mr McGowan has refused to switch off the tap. Londoners use more water than the national average, prompting calls this week from mayor Ken Livingstone to residents to conserve more water.
But Mr McGowan said the mayor should have told Thames Water to fix London's leaking Victorian water mains. The London Assembly said nearly 1,000m litres of water were lost in the region in 2003/04.

We are appealing to his better judgement, that now he has made his point - to turn it off,
- Thames Water's Nick Tennant

"We are all culpable, we all waste water and that includes Thames Water," Mr McGowan said. But Thames Water said it is in the process of replacing 850 miles of Victorian water mains in London, but says the environment is everyone's responsibility.
"We are appealing to his better judgement, that now he has made his point - to turn it off," Mr Tennant added.

Previous stunts by Mr McGowan include rolling a monkey nut with his nose to Downing Street to protest against student debt and sitting in a bath of baked beans for 12 days to celebrate English food.

Sunday July 3, 2005
The Observer

When the heavens opened over London last week, there was one man standing in the downpour on the House of Commons terrace uttering hallelujahs to his sodden colleagues. Elliot Morley was rejoicing not just for the sake of his frazzled back garden: as Minister for water, he is in for a difficult summer unless the reservoirs start filling soon.

British weather may never be predictable, but this June has been more erratic than most. Two weeks ago in Yorkshire, a month's worth of rain fell in under three hours, washing away bridges and driving dozens from their homes. Days later, a 4ft flash flood hit the Glastonbury festival in Somerset.

Meanwhile, in the Home Counties, dried-out riverbeds - and the bare cracked mud where reservoirs should be - signalled the advent of serious drought. Two water companies have imposed hosepipe bans and more may follow. London's Mayor Ken Livingstone is asking people to save water by not flushing the loo if they have just 'had a pee'.

Hours after he spoke, giant hailstones fell on south London and tennis at Wimbledon was rained off. The question bemused Britons could be forgiven for asking is how, with so much water everywhere, could there be barely a drop to drink?

Ironically, experts say the summer storms have produced 'the wrong kind of rain': intense downpours that run off the rock-hard ground, rather than soaking down into the underground acquifers which provide most of our drinking supplies. 'When the ground is baked, it just runs off,' explains Morley. 'You need long periods of rain to get the ground soft, and then it starts to absorb water.'

After eight months of below average rainfall across the South East, reservoirs have shrunk too far to be topped up by the odd shower. And what water there is has been strained by increasing demand. With luxuries such as dishwashers or second bathrooms becoming commonplace, domestic water consumption has risen by up to 70 per cent in the last 20 years - hence the Environment Agency's plea last week for householders not to wash their cars or use sprinklers.

But are careless consumers, wallowing in wasteful bathtubs when they could be efficiently showering, really to blame for the drought? Or, when almost a third of the water in Thames Water's pipes leaks before it reaches the tap, does the fault really lie with the water companies?

A decade on from the summer of 1995 - when Yorkshire Water cut off supplies to thousands of homeowners and its managing director famously admitted to not taking a bath for three months - environmentalists argue that few lessons have been learnt about drought.

'This situation emerges with depressing regularity, where you find insufficient capacity to meet people's needs because there's been a minor fluctuation in rain,' says Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.

'The water companies have taken some action, but the level of wastage is still unacceptably high. Even the basic water-saving technologies are not being deployed [by consumers], and we are back to square one.'

This time, however, Britain is not alone. Spain is rationing water amid its worst drought for 60 years, draining public swimming pools. Portugal's crops are so badly hit it has applied for EU food assistance. Severe droughts are hitting countries from Cuba to Cambodia to Australia.

It is too early to tell whether the dwindling rainfall reflects genuine climate change or just a seasonal blip, but it certainly fits the global warming pattern. And with scientists forecasting still drier summers in future, the race now is to stop drought becoming a permanent feature of British life.

Splashing into the kitchen sink, it may look like just another running tap. But according to Mark McGowan, the man who turned it on last week in a south London art gallery, it is an important creation highlighting the environmental cost of needlessly running the tap while shaving or brushing your teeth.

Unfortunately for him, it swiftly became clear that one man's art installation is another man's grounds for prosecution: Thames Water is threatening to take McGowan to court for wasting water. The company's critics, however, argue that Thames is on shaky ground itself.

Every day, around 946 million litres leak from Thames Water's pipes. When the company announced last week that its operating profits were up 6 per cent at £385.5 million - with directors' bonuses almost tripling from £228,000 to £615,000 - there was predictable fury.

The company retorts that it reinvests 'a significant proportion of our profits' in improving water efficiency, ploughing £617m back. It plans to replace 850 miles of antiquated, often Victorian drains over the next five years, and despite low rainfall is not yet imposing restrictions. And although it is the worst offender, it is not the only one: in 2003-2004 water companies leaked a staggering 3,600m litres a day.

Unfortunately for Thames, however, it is in the South East that the battle for water will mainly be fought - thanks to its dense population, due to rise further thanks to John Prescott's planned housebuilding programme, and dry climate. London has less water per capita than Madrid or Istanbul.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman, says the problems can be traced back to the flawed privatisation of the water industry under the last Tory government. The companies 'have for far too long tried to avoid spending money on tackling leakage'.

His solution, however, is a political hot potato: compulsory water metering, with every household required to pay for what they use. 'It's crazy to have a water charging system where if you use nothing or use masses, it is the same bill. We think it [universal metering] would save up to 10 per cent of water usage.'

Metering may be cheaper for singles or couples who do not use much water, but families with young children - plus the politically volatile suburban middle classes, with their swimming pools and lavishly tended lawns - could lose out. The potential backlash has persuaded the government to rule compulsion out for now, although all new houses must have meters.

But the weather could force its hand. The last resort for water companies is to apply for so-called 'scarcity status' - declaring they are so water-stressed that they must introduce compulsory metering. As Morley hints, at least one South East provider is thought to be on the brink.

Such moves are unlikely to be popular. But if Britons find life without lawn sprinklers painful, the inconveniences they face are as nothing compared to the hardships in store around the globe.

By 2050, the UN predicts, billions of people in dozens of countries will not have access to water to meet their most basic needs - threatening not just humanitarian disaster, but a new trigger for serious conflicts. Populations forced out of their natural territory by drought and crop failure are likely to seek new land, creating tensions with those whose ground they occupy. The threat of 'water wars' may seem fantastical, but drought in Sudan has been identified as one trigger for its civil war, while former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali has argued that the next big war in the Middle East will be fought over water, not oil.

Rivers that flow along the borders of two or more countries are also potential flash points as populations compete for access for irrigation: Egypt has said it will defend its rights over the Nile by force if necessary.

'Water is going to be one of the most sensitive political issues in the future,' says Morley. 'It's going to be a touchy issue in this country, and it could lead to wars in other countries because there's already enormous political tensions over shared water.'

Nor will the effects be felt just by humans. The conservationist Richard Leakey has warned that global warming poses a greater threat to rhinos, lions and elephants than poaching. In Australia, the serious drought of 2003 decimated the kangaroo population.

Back in Britain, the crisis may be less stark but - with man already using more than half of the planet's available freshwater, according to the World Watch Institute in Washington - the draining of rivers to top up drinking supplies still has serious consequences for wildlife.

'The more water we are using in homes and industry the less there is for fish, birds, flowers and all the rest of it,' says Juniper. The decline of water voles is blamed partly on falling river levels, which expose their underwater burrows to predators.

If man is the problem, however, man may also be starting to find solutions. Building design rules to be introduced next year will stipulate that new homes be fitted with water-saving cisterns and boilers.

Water companies are poring over the blueprints for Prescott's new homes, arguing for lawns and gardens to be included in the plans so that rain can seep into the ground rather than running off tarmac.

'We need to start thinking about the effect of hard surfaces on rainfall. The way we build these new homes is going to be crucial,' says Jacob Tompkins of Water UK.

Innovations such as water-saving urinals in pubs, or more efficient showerheads, also mean Britons could start to be more sparing with water without making painful sacrifices, says Juniper. 'You can use less water in ways you wouldn't even notice.'

And if we fail to heed such warnings, Morley warns bluntly, we will pay the price. 'People will be making a big mistake if they think water is not a problem in this country and we can take it for granted. We can't.'

British weather may be a national joke, but by the end of this decade it could well have ceased to be funny.

Down the drain

Each person in the UK uses an average of 135 litres of water per day - more than 10 times the average daily use of a person in the developing world, who uses just 10 litres per day. Some of our main uses of water, in litres, are as follows:

2.5 Recommended daily amount of drinking water for an adult.

5 To fill up a watering can.

6 Brushing teeth with the tap running.

10 Flushing the toilet.

10 Washing the car with a bucket.

20 One load in a dishwasher.

35 A five-minute shower.

65 One load in a washing machine.

80 Filling the bath.

540 Using a hosepipe or sprinkler for an hour.

· Sources: Thames Water Waterwise, Water Aid, BBC, Water UK