I'm asked to comment on psychiatric diagnoses all the time, from Robert Blake by Nancy Grace, to astronaut Lisa Nowak by Soledad O'Brien. I've done the prognosis for everyone from children of polygamist cults to American's Dumbest Criminals on TruTV. For the last two weeks my mailbox has filled with queries about "the starving dog artist."
For those of you that haven't gotten the email, there's one going 'round asking you to sign the petition seeking to prevent Guillermo Vargas from representing Costa Rica in an upcoming multinational art exhibition (Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008). His display of August 2007 in Nicaragua that featured a stray dog captured from the streets and confined on a bare art gallery floor without food, water, or bedding until it starved to death. The artist's goal was supposedly to show the hypocrisy of people's making a sick and ill-fed dog the center of attention at an art exhibit despite the fact that many of them would ignore the same dog on the streets.
Diagnosis: At the very least Vargas has traits of antisocial personality disorder, grandiose and narcissistic personality disorder, and a peppering of delusions.
The line between chronicling cruelty and staging is clear to most. Treating the dog as an object, for "art's" sake shows pathological malevolence. And, though I know I'll get slack for saying this, I'll go so far as to say that dying dog + letters made from dog food on the wall + furnace burning 175 vials of crack + the Sandinista hymn playing backward, does not art make.
His sadism is apparent not only in his treatment of the dog, but in his mocking of the audience. If he had really been trying to make a well thought out point regarding how we choose our charities (which is a fascinating topic) he still might have donated funds toward an overwhelmed local shelter -- or at least let us know about it. Fact is the Humane Society is backed by 10 million Americans, PETA has 1.8 million members, and the ASPCA has 680,000. Are there rules that need to be changed and lives that need to be saved all over the world? Yes. Absolutely. But he doesn't strike me as part of the solution, in any way.
The bottom line is that it is much harder to make art that is inspirational, controversial, and empowering (this hot mess of a show sounded like the leftovers of a meth lab raid). It's much easier to shock people with ugliness or cruelty and then pride yourself that you are misunderstood and edgy. I would guess there is a theme in Vargas' life related to not belonging (with his family and/or with his peers) and he's probably never experienced himself as original, clever, or talented.
Someone called him the "Michael Vick of Art."
Many people have asked me, "What do we do with the sad helplessness that this kind of news makes us feel?" Firstly, stop calling him an artist. Secondly, write hard copy letters to Ministry of Art and Culture of Costa Rica and to museum officials that chose to continue to showcase him. Thirdly, donate to the shelter where the dog was caught and support The World Society for the Protection of Animals. And lastly, go see some real inspiring productions -- something like Koyaniskatsi, or one of Eve Ensler's productions, or you might be able to still get into Burning Man if you hurry.