This is kind of a sad story so if you don't like hearing of man's inhumanity towards God's lesser creatures you may wanna skip this one. I also want to foreword this with that I do not agree with the acts of Guillermo Vargas and do not agree with his ways of expressing his thoughts towards society, but I can't deny my interest in the point he is trying to make.
Guillermo Habacuc Vargas is a Costa Rican artist, or some would call "artist". His most recent and most controversial exhibit entitled "Eres lo que lees", is really quite simple. He retained some local children to scour the streets and find a homeless, sick and dying dog. Not that difficult a task as there are thousands in Costa Rica. He then ties the dog to the wall in a gallery and leaves it there to die as onlookers & art appreciators spend the day walking by within inches of Natividad, the name given to the dog by Vargas (Spanish for "birth").
Right off the bat this seems like cruel and unusual punishment (did I mention Spanish phrases are written on the wall around the dog in dog food?) and my attention was only brought to the issue because I was asked to sign a petition to help stop Vargas from repeating the display with other dogs. Vargas, a dog owner himself, responds to all the uproar & boycott over his "works" by simply saying that this is a study in reflection of human nature. That the people of Costa Rica see these homeless & sick dogs everyday and don't blink an eye. They don't try and help them or feed them or bring them into their homes and are usually genuinely disgusted by and outwardly brutal towards them. These dogs die everyday in dark alleys and garbage dumps and get ignored, yet the second someone takes one of these dogs and places them in front of the world for everyone to
see them die, then people take offense and start petitions & protests. As an artist he has made his statement. As long as the world doesn't see the ugly, the death, as long as it's not at our front door, we're okay with it. I mean, I know I was never asked to sign a petition about helping the sick dogs living on the streets. Just the ones that we are forced to watch die. So who is the petition trying to protect? Our fragile psyche or the dogs?
Guillermo Habacuc Vargas is a Costa Rican artist, or some would call "artist". His most recent and most controversial exhibit entitled "Eres lo que lees", is really quite simple. He retained some local children to scour the streets and find a homeless, sick and dying dog. Not that difficult a task as there are thousands in Costa Rica. He then ties the dog to the wall in a gallery and leaves it there to die as onlookers & art appreciators spend the day walking by within inches of Natividad, the name given to the dog by Vargas (Spanish for "birth"). 
Right off the bat this seems like cruel and unusual punishment (did I mention Spanish phrases are written on the wall around the dog in dog food?) and my attention was only brought to the issue because I was asked to sign a petition to help stop Vargas from repeating the display with other dogs. Vargas, a dog owner himself, responds to all the uproar & boycott over his "works" by simply saying that this is a study in reflection of human nature. That the people of Costa Rica see these homeless & sick dogs everyday and don't blink an eye. They don't try and help them or feed them or bring them into their homes and are usually genuinely disgusted by and outwardly brutal towards them. These dogs die everyday in dark alleys and garbage dumps and get ignored, yet the second someone takes one of these dogs and places them in front of the world for everyone to see them die, then people take offense and start petitions & protests. As an artist he has made his statement. As long as the world doesn't see the ugly, the death, as long as it's not at our front door, we're okay with it. I mean, I know I was never asked to sign a petition about helping the sick dogs living on the streets. Just the ones that we are forced to watch die. So who is the petition trying to protect? Our fragile psyche or the dogs?
No comments:
Post a Comment