Conceptual artist Mark McGowan was performing his latest exhibition 'Dead Soldier' at the junction of New Street and Needless Alley. West Midlands Police have asked him not to start a second day. Read more about Mark below. 'Dead Soldier' in New Street
 | | Passers by look at what's going on |
Mark McGowan is an incidental artist - but has he gone one step too far this time? Or is that the whole point? In his latest exhibition Mark dresses as a soldier and lies in the middle of the street - there's no explanation as to what he's doing - he leaves that up to passers by to think what they will. He came to Birmingham in September for a one hour trial of his work and he certainly did get a reaction from the public. Now he returns for a whole week. He's performing his exhibition at the junction of Needless Alley and New Street. Reaction
 | | Navin |
Navin thought is was pretty odd: "If the TV crews weren’t here he’d just look like he’d been injured and you wouldn't really know why he was there. Now I know it's art - well these sort of things are always going on in city centre." Sarah was out with daughter Katie. She didn't notice Mark on the floor but Kate did. Katie: "When I saw him I thought he was a tramp – I saw the boots, the doc martins, I saw him just laying there. Then I saw the army uniform, the beret and I thought it was something to do with the war in Iraq or something like that."
 | | Katie and Sarah |
Samiya and Amir aged 10 and 9 seemed to enjoy the performance and found it quite fascinating: "He’s acting as if he’s in a war." But their mum wasn't so impressed to see him there. Busy shopper Bernie would have like to have known a bit more about what was going on: "What’s he doing – he’s fast asleep on the floor – what’s that all about?" Bernie did have a point. Many passers by were asking the press what it was all about.
 | | Tekesha, Deborah, Shelai |
Abbi: "I just saw him, the uniform, he looks like he’s dying or something – probably it's to do with armies in a foreign country - a lot of people don’t realise what’s going on in the world, so it might make them think. It's a good thing." Steve and Corinne were pretty concerned about Mark until I told them what it was all about: "He's lying one the floor in an army uniform pretending to be dead. Is he saying he doesn’t like Tony Blair? If all the press weren’t here I'd have stopped and seen if he needed help."
 | | Corinne and Steve |
Tekesha, Deborah, Shelai: Deborah were also quite intrigued: "I’m against war anyway. I suppose it shows that he’s in the army and shows how pointless war is." Watching the reaction of people was fascinating, from those that were totally intrigued by what was going on, to those who passed by without a glance. Reem and Ali though it was a joke - something like Candid Camera at first.
 | | Imran |
Imran: "I’m an artist myself – I studied at UCE. This is conceptual art – I respect it and I find it an interesting art form – but I don’t think the general public will understand it. I think anything that pulls a crowd is good, but after the performance he should do a talk so people know what it was all about." Mark will be in New Street performing Dead Soldier from 14th to 20th November. International Project Space It's part of an exhibition that will be held at the International Project Space, Bournville. Curator Andrew Hunt: "I’ve been aware of Mark’s work for a long time – I decided it would be good to have Mark doing an exhibition in Birmingham. This is an emotive subject. It’s deliberately left to the passer by to decide what it’s all about. We’re not going to make it easy for them!
 | | Mark is an artist portraying a soldier |
But will servicemen and their families be upset by this? Andrew: "I hope not – this isn’t a personal attack and Mark's not saying war is right or wrong. People are dying and we should all be aware of that. I hope they will understand what Mark is trying to achieve." Mark McGowan interviewed Mark talked to Janice Long on BBC WM. | 
