Art and Life

My favorite reaction when revealing that I myself am an artist is: "So are you really any good or do you just do crap and call yourself an artist?" I told the skeptic that I am actually a real artist-no gimmick. I could not really blame his skepticism. There very few people who believe in art anymore. It has become so run of the mill. Obviously, there's nothing illegitimate about art sometimes being shocking. But today it is almost a prerequisite in order to be accepted by the tastemakers and professors now ruling the art establishment. This idea took it's most disturbing turn recently when a Costa Rican artist found himself in hot water with the animal protection people in his home country after using a in an exhibition in Managua, Nicaragua, in August of 2007. Depending on who you believe, Guillermo Vargas either found the dog tied up on a street corner in a poor Nicaragua barrio and brought it to the showing or he plaid two kids money to catch the dog for him. He tied the dog in a corner of the gallery and advised onlookers not to feed it and it eventually died. For Pete's sake don't make something normal that is so "yesterday".Tame. Out-dated. Reactionary. The contemporary art scene that was so "new" has become another form of the conventional and has officially hit an all-time low. Rumor has it the artist is going to be invited to do the same thing again.

Spanish Petitions to Bienal Centroamericana Hondura 2008

1: http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

2: http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html

Petition To the Artist, Guillermo Habacuc Vargas

3: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/5/justicia-para-natividad

You can write to the gallery that welcomed the "artist" and let the dog die at:

codice@galeriacodice.com

You can write to "Bienal Artística Centroamericana de Honduras 2008" that is going to receive him at: bienalcostarica@gmail.com