Pissoir

2000-2001

a collaboration between Allan Giddy & Steven Greenwood

Pre-existing urinals in a gallery toilet are sensitised to allow participants (both male & female) to draw using their urine. As the urine passes through a light field it is tracked by computer. The resulting line drawings are traced life-size in real-time on monitors in an adjacent gallery space. The colour of each line drawing is determined by the pH value of the drawer's urine. Each completed drawing is then uploaded automatically onto the website pissart.org. This work celebrates the private, intimate, DIY act of urination as a creative activity. It provides all participants with, as it were, a canvas, giving them the opportunity to draw/paint their own works of art.