Music Review

04 July 2009 15:48 BST

SpongeBob SquarePants used in waterboarding art show

Nickelodeon character SpongeBob SquarePants features in a new art installation which portrays the waterboarding torture method.

The Waterboarding Thrill Ride, an exhibit at the Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, features the children's favourite being subjected to the controversial practice.

The US has admitted using waterboarding during interrogation of suspected terrorists, with the accused immobilised with their head inclined backwards before water is poured over the face and into the breathing passages, creating the sensation of drowning and imminent death.

And for $1 (50p), visitors to the Coney Island installation created by artist Steve Powers can see a figure being subjected to the torture.

A sign on the outside of the show depicts SpongeBob saying: "It don't Gitmo better!", in reference to the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.

And inside the installation, a man in an orange jumpsuit - actually a robot - is shown tethered to a tilted plane with a towel covering his face before water is poured into his nose and mouth by animated robots

"Robot waterboarding became a way of exploring the issue without doing any harm," Powers told the New York Times.

"It's putting a unique experience on the table. And it doesn't take a great leap of the imagination to look in there and say: 'That's really what's going on? That's crazy.'"

The artist also plans to subject himself to waterboarding under the guidance of a trained interrogation professional later this month.