THE British artist Mark McGowan has been forced to curtail his latest stunt after it inspired a violent reaction in New York. He had planned to spend three days crawling the streets dressed in a grey suit and a latex George Bush mask, with a sign reading "Kick My Ass" affixed to his backside, but was verbally attacked less than three hours into the performance by angry supporters of the president.

It started so promisingly, surrounded by television crews from all the major American news organisations. McGowan has a proven talent for arousing controversy, most recently by eating a swan in protest against the monarchy, and his presence drew welcome attention to the Scope Art Fair.

"People of America," he told reporters, "I am going to crawl on my hands and knees non-stop for 72 hours, offering you all the opportunity to kick me, George Bush, in the ass. I, George, deserves it, for his irresponsible global and international policies which are killing people and destroying this planet. Let the ass-kicking begin."

With that, he pulled the mask down over his face, adjusted his knee pads, and crawled out into the pouring rain. It was a filthy day, but he remained cheerful. "The weather conditions are against me but I love that part of it," he said, "If it continues to rain like this I'll just keep going. People live in worse conditions than this. They used to send me out cross-country running when I was a kid at school. I didn't want to go out then either."

McGowan has a track record for acts of endurance, having once rolled a peanut across London from Camberwell Art College to 10 Downing Street, to draw attention to student debt, but this is not the first time he has gone home early. In 2004 he tried to travel from London to Glasgow in a shopping trolley, but gave up 17 days and 65 miles later. Last year he lay motionless on the streets of Birmingham wearing an army uniform for an artwork called Dead Soldier, but withdrew when he was threatened with violence.

"You've got to be careful with alcoholics and children, because they're the ones that'll get you every time," he observed.

The first New Yorkers he encountered were bemused, and for several blocks the performance suffered from a lack of willing participants. A grinning security guard posed with his foot against McGowan's backside for a photo opportunity, but despite the thick padding in his trousers, people were reluctant to kick him hard. Even here, in a famously liberal quarter of a city with little love for George Bush, no-one was keen to boot the president in the seat of his pants.

Retired professor David Willis said "it looks like nonsense to me" but was eventually persuaded to swing his right foot, confessing afterwards that "kicking his ass felt so good". Student Wilmer Cantos gave him a gentle prod, and immediately regretted it. He said: "I felt kinda bad, because he's the leader of our nation. I think he does deserve it though, because he does a really bad job with our country."

Texan Cecilia Garza admitted disliking her former governor, but only gave him a token tap on the rear. "Kicking the man in the pants I felt bad because I knew it was an actor," she said, "but symbolically it felt somewhat OK. I poked him with my umbrella as well."

In Times Square, three burly men with handlebar moustaches were less sympathetic, calling McGowan a "goddamn liberal" and threatening to kick him "in the jaw" adding, "you'd have terrorists up your ass if it wasn't for George Bush." Shortly afterwards, he decided to head back to the art fair, to remain there for the duration.

"I thought I could cope with it, but to be really truthful, I got scared," he said later. "I thought about going back on the streets but it could actually get physical. I spoke to my mum on the phone and she said, It's not worth it.' I don't mind it being a failure. I don't mind people saying, What a lame attempt,' because in the end it's my safety. The security guard said to me, You're lucky you're in New York. You couldn't do this in many other states in America because you'd get killed. They'd come out and shoot you.'"