Artist to feed convict to goldfish

A convict on death row in America has agreed to let his body be made into a work of art if his final appeal against execution fails.

Gene Hathorn, who has been on death row since 1985, has given his consent for artist Marco Evaristti, the bad boy of the Danish art scene, to use his body as an art installation.

"My aim is to first deep freeze Gene's body and then make fish food out of it. Visitors to my exhibition will be able to feed goldfish with it," Evaristti said.



The artist has visited Hathorn, 47, at his prison in Texas several times in the last year, and hopes this work will go on to form part of his wider project against capital punishment, which has included designing clothes for prisoners to wear on their execution day.

Evaristti does not think his plan is unethical. "The real problem is legally killing people," he said.

According to Evaristti, lawyers in the US doubt whether Hathorn's testament, which bequeaths his body to the artist, is valid.