Monday, April 21, 2008

Starving Dog Art.... art?

I got this email today from a cousin of mine. It was about some guy/artist named Guillermo Vargas, who took a dog off the street, tied it up and put it in an art exhibit and let it die of starvation - a form of "art".

I went directly to Snopes.com because, come on... who seriously would do this to a dog, right? And who would actually stand by, after paying money to see art, and watch this poor dog die?

Snopes.com - Starving Dog Art

Sadly, part of it may be true. It hasn't been discounted.

In the email I received there were 6 pictures total of this dog in the exhibit. It's heartbreaking and very disturbing. Why would anyone walk past this "art" and not untie it and take it home... give it some food, a bath and lots of love? How many people walked by and did nothing?

The good news is, no dog was put in as a replacement once this dog died. It was a one time thing.

Thank God.

But in Snopes.com it says that the artists point of the exhibit was to show how hypocrital people are.

Boom. Someone just hit me in the chest.

His point was - you take a dog, put it on display and refuse to feed it.. emails go around the world, people scream and cry and protest - wanting him out of the art world for doing such a thing.

But would we have stopped and given this dog... this same dog... the time of day or a second thought if we had seen it on the street starving, just as the artist had on the day he chose him? Some of us would, some of us would not.

But... is this art? No, no way in hell. But it is one helluva message this guy sent!