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April 15, 2008
Closing Bell: Otterness In Situ
The Tom Otterness sculpture that we previewed last week is now on display at the corner of Washington and Prospect. A nod to the all the "pioneers" of Dumbo perhaps?
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Comments
"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" should be the title.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 4:54 PM
At least Tom is no longer killing animals and calling it art.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 5:04 PM
He's copped to the shooting a dog in the name of art when he was 25.
Where are all the people who were outraged at what Michael Vick did to the dogs he no longer deemed fit to fight for him?
I would argue that killing a dog in the name of art is worse than what Vick did when he killed his fighting dogs.
Otterness considered it art to kill a dog at least Vick never sugar coated what he was doing - he knew he was engaged in a savage 'sport' and killing an underperforming dog fit into his sensibilities.
But I since Otterness is an artist he'll get a pass. Vick is a 'thug' so what he did was worse, right?
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 5:23 PM
Lots of chatter on Brooklyn Heights Blog about this piece.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 5:23 PM
My understanding about the piece is it was in the context of a protest against the Viet Nam War. He was pointing out that more people would be outraged by him shooting a dog than they were by the famous photo of the South Vietnamese general shooting a prisoner in the head.
He was right. We are still talking about the killing of a dog and not the daily loss of life in our current rendition of Vietnam...Iraq.
Posted by: kuroko at April 15, 2008 5:29 PM
kuroko,
5:23 PM here - thanks for putting it in context
too bad Otterness wasn't smart enough to realize that he didn't have to actually kill the dog to make that point
I actually agree with it. We as a society do become more unhinged over the death of a dog than we do a person. After car fatalities, the 2nd leading cause of death for a pregnant woman is homicide but Michael Vick and now Otterness gets people's blood boiling.
Our priorities are so out of wack.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 5:35 PM
What the %$#! does this have to do with Iraq. I'm outraged by both events, but one has nothing to do with the other!
Posted by: GHB at April 15, 2008 5:36 PM
They are called war atrocities for a reason. So what if the killing is committed as an act of nationalism or an art piece? He killed a dog because he figured he could get away with it and people should be outraged because he was in no way forced into a situation that required him to kill that dog- he did it entirely of his own free will and forethought.
Posted by: Karka at April 15, 2008 5:50 PM
I like his art, it's friendly, for a change.
There's not excuse for what he did to that dog, but it was 30 years ago. I never killed a dog but I've done things I regret. I think Otterness deserves some slack.
Posted by: WillBklyn at April 15, 2008 6:25 PM
Look, let's face it. Most of us were assholes 25-30 years ago: youth. I know I was.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 6:32 PM
why is killing a dog worse than killing a cow?
thousands of animals are killed daily to help keep our supermarkets stocked.
Posted by: oe at April 15, 2008 7:15 PM
As art, it's terrible. Lowest common denominator crap.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 8:24 PM
I dont get why they put it in Brooklyn.
Posted by: slick at April 15, 2008 8:57 PM
Sorry Kuroko. Maybe that bullshit excuse would fly 30 years ago but it doesn't now. I can't say since I wasn't around at that time to sample the zeitgeist. But if you think no one cares about the people that are dying in Iraq right now, you only need to look as far as The Idiot Bush's approval rating. And by the way, killing a defenseless animal as an "art project" is just about as low as you can go. At 25 you should know better so I don't buy that excuse either. If Mr. Otterman wanted to prove a point of some sort, he should have used himself as the test subject. At least he would have been making a conscious choice for himself, unlike the dog, which had no choice in the matter.
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 9:05 PM
Speaking of war atrocities PBS has a great show on Walt Whitman right now which draws alot of parallels between war dead and injuries during the civil war and those today in Iraq.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at April 16, 2008 7:29 AM
Why didn't he just leave it in Prospect Park like all the other dog owners?
Posted by: guest at April 16, 2008 9:58 AM
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