8:08pm UK, Friday November 14, 2003

An artist has decided to spend 12 days sitting in a bath of baked beans - to show his support for the full English breakfast.

Mark McGowan, 37, will also have two chips up his nose and 48 sausages wrapped around his head for the stunt.

Do you want chips with that?

He said: "We don't support our culture enough, so I thought I'd celebrate a part of it by turning myself into a traditional English breakfast."

The spectacle will take place in the shop window of a gallery near his home in Camberwell, south London.

His aim is to spend eight hours a day, for 12 days, in the bath.

"I suppose I am the British alternative to David Blaine but sitting in a plastic box is nothing compared to what I will be doing," he said.


Mr McGowan first hit the headlines earlier this year when he rolled a monkey nut seven miles through London to 10 Downing Street to protest against student debt.

His latest project was prompted by criticism of the English diet by a friend who was visiting from Italy.

"I took him to a traditional English pub but he started to complain when he saw the menu," he said.

"There were things like eggs, chips and beans or steak and mushroom pie with chips and beans, but he didn't seem impressed by the cuisine.

"I suppose he would have preferred mozzarella."