Comments on: Starving Dog as Art â€“ Donâ€™t Believe Everything You Read

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:48:08 +0000

it is no art it is shit

By: den

den — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:42:40 +0000

Mad Morten, I don’t really like your tone of indignation directed at people who criticised the use of a ‘starving’ animal in a piece of conceptual art. Guillermo may well have been making a valid point. BUT he had absolutely no right to exploit the dog in this way. Having taken it off the street he had a duty as a compassionate person to look after it. To say that it escaped, well do I believe that ?….possibly, to get himself out of the hole he dug himself. I am an artist and particularly like art that challenges us, but this was bordering on sensationalism, with no outcome, either practically nor artistically. I am sure that you are aware that there are quite a few artists who use animals in their works of art: Ukraine-born Nathalia Edenmont,who made a purse out of her cat or Teemo MÃ¤kiâ€™s cat project, in which he videotaped himself killing a cat and then masturbating on the dead animal. Both these projects sound just as ludicrous as the starving dog in Costa Rican artist, Guillermo Habacuc Vargas piece, but they are true. How are we as a reader supposed to distinguish between what is real and what is not? How dare you or your brown noses refer to us ignoramuses. It is you who are ignorant for not treating this installation with the contempt it deserves. Shame on you

By: chantal poulin

chantal poulin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:37:18 +0000

What I really wanted to say ,is that Compassion is the key for happiness…And without compassion for each other, human or animal…”WE” will always suffer as a society. I wish Guillermo and all other human to cultivate compassion for his own happiness and for the whole world.If “WE” as individual cultivate more compassion in our life …at the end the world would be a better place to live with less and less suffering…Again, may all beings be well and happy and may they live without suffering…

By: chantal poulin

chantal poulin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:09:29 +0000

why don’t we close our eyes for one minute….think of Guillermo and Navidad,and pray for both of them….they both need help ..just like all of us….I am an artist as well ,I live in Costa Rica,I am a Canadian.I still don’t think that this is art…. Since we moved here, one year ago, we adopted 6 starved and abandoned dogs. The joy I feel in my heart everytime I look at them …happy and relief from suffering is indescribable!!Poor Guillermo,He miss that opportunity to help….an other being. There is over than one million abandonned dogs in Costa Rica.There are vets that work almost for free to help those animals here in Costa Rica and a lot of volonteers. I wish I could have met Navidad before, bring him to the vet, heal him, givind him food and love…He is living in my heart forever….May all beings be well and happy….Excuse my english..I am French!

By: justicematters

justicematters — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:19:32 +0000

I remember when a friend told me about this and was “appalled” by it. It’s so hypocritical. That dog probably had the best day of his life in that exhibit. He was fed and people were paying attention to him. If they had seen him wandering the streets they would have ignored him and left him for dead anyway. The artist was dead on with this one. “Screw the hundreds of people who die everyday in other countries from murder and starvation, we need to stop this artist!” Get real.

By: Yeahh

Yeahh — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:04:20 +0000

Seriouslyyyy anyone who thinks this is an “injustice” is an idiot and probably has never left their home. Go to cuba, the dominican, costa rica and many south american countries and you will literally find hundreds of dogs like this roaming the streets and your biggest concern is that this artist won’t be able to do this again? That dog has probably died, as have hundreds of thousands since then, yet you are outraged at this artist for putting ONE on display, to prove a point that you are all stupid, which you are. Stop wasting your “time” (The 3 seconds it takes you to sign an online petition?) and do something about starving dogs if you are really upset. Even if this guy is a “monster” you are not going to be able to stop people like this from doing what they do or existing why don’t you focus your energy in a positive manner instead of “trying” to stop people from doing something in the future which they didn’t even do in the past.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:12:23 +0000

By: we

we — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:00:53 +0000

as for vicky and others, it’s just innocence until proven guilty, as well as believing the statements made by the gallery vs. no reliable opposing sources. Why not believe their word, aside from a misinforming petition that’s aroused your suspicions.

By: we

we — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:58:00 +0000

So he took a dog off the streets, fed it, and then tied it in one place for a few hours, which to me seems about as cruel as putting a dog in a kennel or a small room. Then it got away, which doesn’t make much of a difference because he planned to let it go. I see that some people have an objection to having the dog tied up even if Vargas didn’t starve it himself, but to me, it seems pretty fair for it to be treated so well. All in all, the more he gets trahsed, the stronger his statement becomes, in its ironic, beyond-his-control way. Pretty kool exhibit.

By: Morten

Morten — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:51:55 +0000

@Vicky: Actually it’s the other way around. There is no evidence what so ever that the dog died. There is one misquoted news story from an irreputable source, that’s it. All the other stuff is anecdotal and spun off from that one source. The artist as well as the gallery and several attendees have all stated that the dog was fine.

My point, which you obviously missed completely, is that people automatically jump to the colclusion that the dog must have been killed without bothering to look up the facts or even consider an alternate explanation. They act with their feelings rather than their heads. Which is exactly what the artist was trying to say.

True, there are no pictures of the dog walking away, but why would there be? It’s not very interesting. However, if the dog really was dead I can assure you plenty of people would have taken tons of photos and posted them. So in retort I say to you: Prove to me that the dog really was killed. Where are the photos, the police report, anything other than one misinterpreted newsreport from a questionable source. Get your facts staright before you start complaining about others.