Inspirational Art

17 Apr, 2008 by John Hawkins

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This apparently ISN’T a new story, but it’s so shockingly cruel that it caught my eye anyway.

“A Costa Rican artist – Guilermo Vargas Habacuc – has generated international outrage with this work of “art”.

He took a starving dog off the streets of San Jose, Costa Rica and tied it up in an art gallery. Food was placed where the dog could smell it – but the poor creature could not reach the food. The dog starving to death was Habacuc’s work of art.

You want an example of the slippery slope of an art world where anything goes? This is just an extension of the moral depravity of artists like Robert Mapplethorpe with his bullwhip in the anus… of Andrew Serrano with “Piss Christ”… when you have acceptance of works like those, it is not a tremendous moral leap to starving a dog. It’s all a matter of degree.

The artist in this case says he wanted to generate conversation about the plight of thousands of dogs that are roaming the streets, starving to death every day in his city. He has indeed generated conversation.”

Many of you Philistines will probably criticize Guilermo Vargas Habacuc and claim that this is “cruelty,” not art. However, this has actually inspired me to come up with my own suggestion for an art exhibit.

It’s called “Pummeled artist” and the idea is that Guilermo Vargas Habacuc will be chained to the wall of an art museum and savagely beaten with a sack full of doorknobs every hour on the hour until he can press a button on the wall that will be just out of his reach. Now here’s the real kicker: each person who beats Habacuc will be required to turn over 5 cans of dog food that will go to feed the city’s hungry dogs.

Now that’s art with a message!

Hat tip to Orbusmax for the story.