At the moment we are working on an exhibition on tortures for Museum GoudA. And so we come across a lot of examples of torture on the internet. We stumbled upon the artist Steve Powers, who made an waterboarding installation in Coney Island. For just one dollar you can see an animatronic torturer waterboard an orange jumpsuited prisoner. Pouring water over the cloth covered face, and up the nose and mouth, the prisoner experiences the process of drowning and struggles at his restraints. This is of course done with a robot. But Steve also did a real live waterboarding for the sake of art.
Steve was an New York graffiti artist who wrote in Philadelphia and New York under the name of Espo. Nowadays he claims no longer to make graffiti but he does murals, designs clothing, books and makes installations. Here is some of his more (seemingly) cheerful work.
