Water and the Artist

A Guardian article today about an artist, Mark McGowan, who has decided to leave a tap in a south London gallery running for one year for the purposes of his exhibition has just reminded me of another article I saw last week about an Indian artist, Mr. Sharad Haksar, who is being sued by Coca-cola for drawing attention to their record of reaking havoc on the water resources of rural communities across India.

Mark McGowan calls his exhibition "The Running Tap" and claims that it is his effort to protest against wasted water in London by blatantly letting it go down the drain. His 'effort' (which started three weeks ago) has earned him the ire of residents and Thames Water alike, and Thames Water are investigating mechanisms under the Water Industry Act (1991) for bringing an action against McGowan and forcing him to turn off his exhibition, which could waste around 3.9 million gallons of water and cost about $23,320.

In contrast, Mr. Haksar's art manages to draw attention to water wastage in a manner that is consistent with his objectives (i.e.; he is not wasting water in the process). Instead, he has placed "a large billboard in one of Chennai's busiest areas - one of India's largest cities" which depicts a dry water pump in front of a Coke ad. For the people of India, who are well aware of coca-cola's record of draining rural communities dry, this billboard carries a message of truth. However, Coke disagrees and is suing Mr. Haksar for "incalculable damage to the goodwill and reputation" of the company. One assumes that they would have to prove that they actually have a good reputation in India, something that I find hard to believe after their performance in Plachimada - a rural community that successfully campaigned to have Coke's licence suspended (after their wells were drained dry and their groundwater contaminated) only to have the decision overturned last May.

Anyway, I love the photo and hope that he is successful in defending the suit.