Lecture 3: The Body

What really stuck with me from today's lecture was the "starving dog" exhibit. I love dogs. The Daily Puppy is my browser home page. I've even considered becoming a dog photographer just so I can spend time with animals all day. When I saw Guillermo Vargas's exhibit of a dog tied to a wall with no food or water, I instantly felt disgusted and upset.

How is leaving an innocent animal to die artistic? I don't care if it is allegedly untrue--the fact that someone could fabricate such a piece is enough to make me question humanity. Vargas claimed he was being ironic by putting a stray dog in a public gallery in order to shine light on the fact that if someone saw the same dog out on the streets there wouldn't be such an outrage. But because the dog was presented in a supposedly civilized realm, it received more attention and concern than the thousands of other helpless creatures without a home. To a certain extent this may be true, but making a spectacle out of suffering is not art. Vargas's piece was more about creating a sensation than it was about creating art.

I read a few articles in response to the photos and one author made a comment that resonated with another aspect of Kip's lecture. PETA wrote this about the subject:

"The reason we’ve stayed quiet about this incident (in public, at least) is that if there is any truth at all to the allegations, the less publicity this man receives, the better. The best way to prevent desperate, ethically deficient “artists” from getting what they want is to ignore the perpetrators in public and prosecute them in private."

Kip asked us what the opposite of love was, and I thought it was hate. But to an artist, indifference is even worse. We've all heard the saying "any publicity is good publicity". The more attention Vargas receives, whether it is positive or negative, the more we are admitting that his work has influence or importance. I realize that by posting this I'm simply fueling the controversy and forcing his piece even further into the public sphere, but when it comes to animal cruelty I can't help but feel overly sympathetic. I can't be indifferent to such an issue because it's just not in my nature. Hopefully the fact that the majority of his publicity is negative and disapproving will discourage other artists from attempting such inhumane levels of creativity.