Guillermo Habacuc Vargas - "Artist"

[Blind_Io]

Note the use of quotations marks. Normally I don't get too involved in shock art, but this guy has gone too far.

He paid a couple of kids to catch a stray dog, which he chained to a wall in a gallery - he made it clear that no one was to feed the dog. During the course of the event, which was to choose artists to represent the nation of Nicaragua, the dog slowly wasted away and allegedly starved to death.

I usually give artists a great deal of leeway and I try to never say something "isn't art" just that "I don't like it." Well, not this time. This is not art, it's cruelty.

Enjoy the exhibit, everyone.

[tigger]

That's pretty fucked up. He ought to be prosecuted.

[essentialatom]

Originally Posted by tigger

That's pretty fucked up. He ought to be prosecuted.

Seconded. There must be a whole group of animal cruelty laws he's violating. Poor dog...

[BlitzR]

'fucked up' is too less of a description.

[fbc]

He should be chained to a wall and left to starve to death - what a fucked up individual, feel so sorry for the dog.

[petarkb]

Hmm, a shock story with shitty pictures and no source... Gee I wonder, bonzai kittens all over again?

[Blind_Io]

Do a search for his name, it's all over the blogsphere.

[bartboy9891]

Apparently this happened around last October.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/vargas.asp

According to Snopes, there is the possibility that the dog was just made to look like it was starving while it was actually being fed after closing.

[BlaRo]

Anybody can be an artist these days. It's sickening how far we've strayed from the bounds of the definition as a culture and have been led to believe that even the most thoughtless hack can earn fame, recognition, and an air of elitism to dupe millions into thinking that his thoughts are worth expressing, that his emotions are "groundbreaking" and not the same half-assed, hackneyed shit that's been beaten to death.

I can't stand "artists" like this, who rely on shock value and in-your-face attitudes that try so desperately hard at subverting cultural norms that whatever hackneyed message they might have formed to begin with gets lost in the brazen offensiveness that they pollute society with.

The best way to starve an artist: ignore them. Cut them off from their sense of self-importance, destroy their elitist snobbery by posing them off as just like everybody else. Bring them down to your level. Like the man who wears a gas mask for shock value*, simply pay them no mind. They are just the next piece of decaying organic matter like the rest of them.


*I saw this on the quad today. Nothing's shocking anymore, which is what hacks like this need to realize.

[Blind_Io]

Originally Posted by bartboy9891

Apparently this happened around last October.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/vargas.asp

According to Snopes, there is the possibility that the dog was just made to look like it was starving while it was actually being fed after closing.

How, exactly, do you make a dog that thin without starving it?

[Momentum57]

I really hate to play devils advocate on this one but here it goes:

Why do you care what happens to this dog. It is just an animal. Don't give me that inhumane crap, death is death. You gas them, or starve them, or snap their necks, they are going to die. I like dogs I really do, as pets, just not equals.

Ever think about the message the artist is try to send about Nicaragua. Listen to you all worried about the dog but not one of you have thought "Shit, I care more for a dogs suffering than Nicaragua these days"

Not to say that you should that is their problem; that they have high unemployment, an economy that is shit, and no political power with their neighbors.

Think about it this way think about your emotions, validate them, and walk on.

[Cobol74]

^ Because it removes your humanity if you can not have empathy for suffering - ask any member of the SS who had no empathy for their victims.

One sick individual to deliberately do this to a defenceless animal. More than that why did not people visiting do something about it?

[chaos386]

OK, I'll bite:

Originally Posted by Momentum57

Why do you care what happens to this dog. It is just an animal.

Because, like any other normal human being, I can't stand to watch a creature being deliberately tortured.

Originally Posted by Momentum57

Don't give me that inhumane crap, death is death.

No, no it isn't. Would you still have been OK with it if the dog had survived (assuming it died and didn't just escape like the gallery director claimed), saying "life is life"?

Originally Posted by Momentum57

You gas them, or starve them, or snap their necks, they are going to die.

Mind if I peel off your skin and let you bleed to death? I mean, you're going to die eventually, anyway, so it shouldn't matter when or how it happens, right?

Originally Posted by Momentum57

I like dogs I really do, as pets, just not equals.

Ever think about the message the artist is try to send about Nicaragua. Listen to you all worried about the dog but not one of you have thought "Shit, I care more for a dogs suffering than Nicaragua these days"

Not to say that you should that is their problem; that they have high unemployment, an economy that is shit, and no political power with their neighbors.

Except that they have the chance, however small, to better themselves and solve their own problems, but a dog tied to a wall doesn't.

Think of it this way: no one really cared when the dog was a stray, despite the fact that its life wouldn't necessarily have been any better or longer. The difference is that it would still have had a chance at survival. Take that away, and people get upset.

Originally Posted by Momentum57

Think about it this way think about your emotions, validate them, and walk on.

I don't actually have anything to "refute" for this part, I just want to point out that, even if I didn't agree with it, your post was thought-provoking, and look! You didn't have to kill a dog to write it!

[Momentum57]

Originally Posted by chaos386

No, no it isn't. Would you still have been OK with it if the dog had survived (assuming it died and didn't just escape like the gallery director claimed), saying "life is life"?

Life is life for humans. I don't like abortions and the death penalty but I accept them as needed in our society.

Originally Posted by chaos386

Mind if I peel off your skin and let you bleed to death? I mean, you're going to die eventually, anyway, so it shouldn't matter when or how it happens, right?

If you were a court and had found me guilty of a capital crime and that was the law of the land. I don't support the death penalty because if you are a drug lord your more afraid of being killed by your competition than the state. Perhaps if the state had a little balls and showed people what it was like to go against society we wouldn't need the death penalty as much as we do.

Originally Posted by chaos386

Think of it this way: no one really cared when the dog was a stray, despite the fact that its life wouldn't necessarily have been any better or longer. The difference is that it would still have had a chance at survival. Take that away, and people get upset.o

Thats the point the artist is trying to make the people in Nicaragua are slaves in their own economy.


HOW CAN I GET THROUGH TO THESE KIDS (Eric Cartmenez)

Don't think about it guys, I really don't care either way about the dog, or other people.
You would eat me if you had the chance, wouldn't you. If you do get the chance people, I have some great recipes for flesh.

[airmenair]

Originally Posted by Momentum57

I really hate to play devils advocate on this one but here it goes:

Why do you care what happens to this dog. It is just an animal. Don't give me that inhumane crap, death is death. You gas them, or starve them, or snap their necks, they are going to die. I like dogs I really do, as pets, just not equals.

Ever think about the message the artist is try to send about Nicaragua. Listen to you all worried about the dog but not one of you have thought "Shit, I care more for a dogs suffering than Nicaragua these days"

Not to say that you should that is their problem; that they have high unemployment, an economy that is shit, and no political power with their neighbors.

Think about it this way think about your emotions, validate them, and walk on.

I'm not PETA advocate in any sense, but you are a heartless bastard. Doubt that really matters to you though.

[Momentum57]

Originally Posted by airmenair

I'm not PETA advocate in any sense, but you are a heartless bastard. Doubt that really matters to you though.

I like dogs but when Bucky got old we took him to the vet and gassed him. Sure they say "put him to sleep" but its all a sweet dose of death.

Have you ever seen what it looks like to be eaten alive by cancer. Why do you think people went to Dr. Kevorkian, its not like people were saying hes got a great bed side smile.

People say eating horse is wrong because it is cruel to the horse. Boo hoo a few days ago people rode him, I am sure he was thrilled about that. He was fun, now he is dead why just waste the body, lets eat. Don't get me started on pet cemeteries.