10:35am UK, Monday April 18, 2005

An artist has vandalised nearly 50 cars - in the name of art.

Mark McGowan scratched dozens of cars in England and Scotland with a key.

180 art Mark McGowan 'keying' a car

Art: But not as we know it

McGowan, who once pushed a monkey nut for seven miles with his nose, said his artwork examined the "worldwide pandemic" of keying.

"I pick the cars randomly," he said.

"What I have been looking at are issues of property and linking it with art and performative action."

He added: "I got the idea when my sister and brother-in-law's cars were keyed. Is it jealousy that causes someone to key a car? Hatred? Revenge?

"There is a strong creative element in the keying of a car, it's an emotive engagement. Maybe it will enter the mainstream like graffiti."

McGowan rather bravely, or some would say rather stupidly, set about defacing cars in Camberwell, south London.

He then moved on to the Botanical Gardens in Glasgow.

His work will be displayed on Wednesday night in a launch party at The Arches, an exhibition venue in Glasgow.

Police said they would investigate any complaints by the cars' owners.

It is not the first time McGowan's art has got him in the headlines.

Other stunts include:

*Nailing his feet to the floor of an art gallery

*Pushing a monkey nut for seven miles with his nose to 10 Downing Street in a protest against student debt

*Sitting for 12 days in a bath filled with baked beans, with two chips up his nose and sausages wrapped around his head - to defend criticism of the full English breakfast

*Rolling himself across London for four-and-a-half miles singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas to highlight the work of office cleaners

*Cooking and eating a fox to draw attention to the plight of "crackheads"