People are pissed about a canine statue that was temporarily placed on Wall Street this week.
According to the New York Post, NYC artist Alex Gardega decided to protest the controversial Fearless Girl statue by placing his sculpture of a urinating dog right next to it. Fearless Girl was installed across from the iconic Charging Bull earlier this year in honor of International Women’s Day; and although it was supposed to be removed earlier, mayor Bill de Blasio extended Fearless Girl’s placement for 11 months after it become increasingly popular among tourists.
But not everyone was happy about the addition. Charging Bull’s creator Arturo Di Modica has criticized the piece as nothing more than an “advertising trick” by the corporations that placed it there: State Street Global Advisors and advertising firm McCann. Di Modica told the Boston Globe that Fearless Girl altered the meaning of Charging Bull and, therefore, infringed on his artistic copyright. And it seems some people, like Gardega, agree.
Gardega explained why he decided to place Pissing Pug next to Kristen Visbal’s Fearless Girl, which shows a young girl bravely staring down the bronze bull.
“This is corporate nonsense,” he told the NY Post. “It has nothing to do with feminism, and it is disrespect to the artist that made the bull. That bull had integrity.”
Those who considered the work misogynistic immediately criticized the dog statue.
But Gardega insists the work is not intended to promote an anti-feminist message.
Pissing Pug was removed from the site at noon Monday, just several hours after the artist had placed it there.
Artists Di Modica and Visbal have not commented on the dog statue.
