Artists are waging a battle in Manhattan.
Over Memorial Day weekend, a New York City sculptor installed a statue of a pissing dog next to the famed “Fearless Girl” statue in protest of it being placed across the iconic “Charging Bull” earlier this year.
Alex Gardega told the New York Post that the statue, taking aim at the girl’s left leg, is called “Pissing Pug.” He said “Fearless Girl” was “corporate nonsense,” claiming that it was put across Arturo di Modica’s famed bull as a publicity stunt by a Boston-based financial firm.
“It has nothing to do with feminism, and it is disrespect to the artist that made the bull,” he said. “That bull had integrity.”
On why he decided to make the statue, he said, “I decided to build this dog and make it crappy to downgrade the statue, exactly how the girl is a downgrade on the bull.”
According to NBC New York, Gardega removed the statue around three hours after he put it there because he was scared it was going to be stolen. NBC reported the statue was named “Sketchy Dog.”
Online reaction to the addition has been decidedly unfavorable.
https://twitter.com/RedTRaccoon/status/869535537408954368
Pissed off artist adds statue of urinating dog next to ‘Fearless Girl’ https://t.co/8IxMyxs23v pic.twitter.com/HAFf9wHTGs
— Cuomo Watch ?? (@CuomoWatch) May 30, 2017
The four-foot tall statue of a young girl staring defiantly into Wall Street’s famous bull was put up in March after its unveiling at March 8’s International Women’s Day. It has since come to symbolize feminism and female empowerment.
Di Modica is no fan of “Fearless Girl” himself, having previously called it an “advertising trick” and claiming the presence of the statue infringes on his artistic copyright by changing the dynamic of the “Charging Bull.”
According to the Post, Di Modica installed the bronze piece in front of the New York Stock Exchange after the 1987 stock market crash without a permit in the middle of the night.