Oct
17
2008
What Are You Doing Tonight?
I’m braving the smoke and heading out to The Chat Room Pub for the opening of Brittany Elidemir’s photography exhibit “milk at dawn”.
Apr
17
2008
Once Again, I Fail To Understand “Art”
So there’s this “artist” in Costa Rica who’s “art” installation consisted of a dog tied up in the corner of an art gallery, then left to die (supposedly) of starvation. As if that weren’t enough, he’s been invited to represent Costa Rica (in the celebration of art) at the Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American.
Seriously? That’s fucking art? What if I took some cow’s blood and jacked off in it, then pressed it between two sheets of plexiglass, would that be art? Uh-oh. It already is. Damn, I guess I’ll have to come up with something even more disgusting, although I think Senior Habacuc has already completely destroyed the boundaries on that one.
A little more digging casts some doubts on the actual outcome of the situation. The gallery owner says the dog was well-fed, but that’s a tough argument to make considering its apparent condition in the photos. The gallery owner also claims that the dog escaped in the night and was never seen again, and that it was only tied up for the 3 hours or so that the exhibit was open.
The “artist,” of course, refuses to confirm or deny what happened to the dog; relishing the attention and seeking to promote his message.
It’s pretty clear that he’ll go to any lengths to promote himself and his work. It’s up to civil society to make sure that we don’t let him benefit from this cruelty, and send the message that doing something heinous, even with the excuse of “it’s art!” is unacceptable and WILL be punished, if not by law enforcement, then by making sure that his other pieces are completely worthless on the art market and choking his source of income.
More importantly; Nicaragua has no animal cruelty laws on the books, so what he did to this dog (whether it resulted in the dog’s death or not) was perfectly legal there. And people wonder why Americans have the assumption that countries to the south are “backwards.” (I know that this is a gross stereotype. Please don’t bother emailing me or commenting to point it out.) In this case, the “artist” in question is from Costa Rica, which DOES have animal cruelty laws, so this act of torture would have been illegal in his home country.
Art nerds? Care to defend this one?