A spam email campaign to save a dog that may or may not be in danger of dying for a work of art…
Uncaring art bastards ignore dog suffering in preference for canapes.
“Hi all, This is a very serious matter… In the 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, he tied him to a rope in an art gallery, starving him to death. For several days, the ‘artist’ and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful ‘masterpiece’ based on the dog’s agony, until eventually he died…”
The starving dog is now believed to be living happily on a farm…
“Does it look like art to you? But this is not all… the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American decided that the ‘installation’ was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.
“You’ll come onto the page where you can click on ‘sign the petition’, On the next page you need to ‘preview your signature’, so click on that, then click ‘approve signature’.
“It’s free of charge, there is no need to register, and it will only take 1 minute to save the life of an innocent creature.
“Please also send this e-mail to as many contact as you can… Let’s stop him!!!
“If you want to double check all the above informations you can google the name of the ‘artist’ to see all I have just said corresponds to truth.
“Thank you.”
UPDATE: A full explanation of the controversy appeared on ArtNet…
“After images of the hungry dog, tethered and surrounded by gallerygoers, were released on the internet, a furor began to build around the issue, fanned by accusations that the animal had died during the exhibition. According to a story in the Costa Rican paper La Nación on Oct. 4, 2007, Marta Leonor González, editor of the Nicaraguan paper La Prensa, confirmed that the dog died after the first day of the show, with the article implying that the animal’s death occurred because of starvation. Codice director Juanita Bermúdez, however, told the Guardian newspaper in London, which subsequently picked up the story (and which has been the source of much of the English-speaking world’s information) that the dog “was untied all the time except for the three hours the exhibition lasted and it was fed regularly with dog food Habacuc himself brought in,” adding that it did not die, but in fact escaped.”
