Artist Installs Pug Peeing Statue Next to Fearless Girl Statue

Remember when the creator of the Wall Street bull threatened to sue the city of New York and the creators of the Fearles Girl statue because he thought it made his artwork look bad? Well today artist Alex Gardega made a strong point about how one artwork can affect another by installing a peeing dog statue beside the Fearless Girl.

Unsurprisingly, critics complained that his work was sexist, but Gardega defended his work as a critique of the corporate sponsor that was responsible for putting up the Fearless Girl statue (yes, she wasn't made by a pro-woman artist, but as an advertisement by Wall Street corporation State Street).

"I decided to build this dog and make it crappy to downgrade the statue, exactly how the girl is a downgrade on the bull," he added.

Gardega took down the statue less than a day after putting it up, noting that he didn't even bolt it to the ground and that viewers damaged the dog's leg. He says he intends to put it back up after repairing it and that he eventually plans to sell it on his website for $10.

You can read more about the dog statue on Gothamist and Refinery 29

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I find it sad how much people try to project their own side of unrelated fights onto situations like this. There are some relevant debatable issues about art and involvement of companies. But others tried very hard to turn it into a men's rights vs. feminism thing when that had little to do with the original issues. Others try very hard to turn this into a left vs. right thing, which has looked especially ridiculous to me after seeing people arguing both, "Obviously the right want the Fearless Girl statue removed while the left defend it" and "Obviously the left want the Fearless Girl statue removed while the right defend it." It seems almost selfish that people need to rope unrelated issues into bolstering their own wars, when there is no shortage of actually relevant things to fight over in those wars.

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Personally, I don't have a problem with another artist putting up art that criticizes the bull. It was a guerrilla art piece and just because it has been legitimized by the city of New York doesn't mean that it should be revered any more than a graffiti mural on a wall. I don't like the idea of a corporation pretending to do guerrilla artwork as a marketing tactic. It goes against everything the movement is based on. I honestly find it sad how many "feminists" believe the whole thing really is empowering. Sorry, but if a Wall Street corporation takes up your cause as a marketing tactic, it's not empowering, it's just demeaning.
That's why I personally love the pug. I even love the fact that he intentionally made it crappy and cheap though I hope he makes an improved version that can't be destroyed so easily.

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This is exactly what I thought would happen. Let’s hope this stops here. It was wrong to put the girl statue up in the first place…not because of the message but because it changes the original artist work and context. It would be like pasting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. So now some new person changes it again with the little dog. And like usual because the left does not like the speech they kick and destroy it. How about we just agree that if you want to make a statement you do your own work and you don’t try to steal others and if you don’t like others statements you don’t go and burn the books you write your own to refute it.

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