Animals killed

in the name of

"Art"

This is Katinka Simons, aka TINKEBELL an alleged Dutch "artist" who produces, among others, handbags from cats. She also makes stuffed puppets from dead animals, that she kills herself.

In 2004 TINKEBELL. made a purse out of her dearest cat Pinkeltje. Pinkeltje was a 'depressed cat' who couldnt be left at home alone. By killing her and making her into a purse, TINKEBELL. could carry her always with her.

In 2005 TINKEBELL. was asked to present a D.I.Y. 'workshop' during the 'Biggest Visual Power Show' in Paradiso, Amsterdam (N.L.) and at the same time she published a website online with this same manual. Later she presented the same workshop during The Biggest Visual Power Show in Eindhoven (NL), Zolverein (DE) and L.A. (U.S.)

The extensive attention her project 'My dearest cat Pinkeltje' received from activists and the media demonstrates that this approach certainly meets with its share of resistance. In this project, she killed her cat with own hands and then had it stuffed and made into a hand bag as a product for consumption, thereby directly bridging the gap between house pet and animal for consumption/production and thus painfully bringing the matter to light. A collection of the threats generated by this and other projects was later published in the book 'Dearest TINKEBELL,'.

Source: http://looovetinkebell.com/pages/my-dearest-cat-pinkeltje

There was some confusion on how she went about with the killing, but in the following video she clearly stated at 1:10 that she snapped its neck. To view that video, click here.

Source: http://www.looovetinkebell.com/pages/tinkebell

TINKEBELL. provokes by exemplifying the blind spots of modern society. She confronts a public that revels in being indignant about everything that has nothing to do with them, but at the same time is very apologetic about their own actions. She questions why millions of male chicks are brutally killed every day (often by throwing them against the walls of a barn) but she gets arrested for threatening to do the same in public. Why are people who openly discuss the lowering of the sexual age of consent treated as vile pedophiles, but are 'barely 18' websites intensely popular?

By turning her own cat into a handbag she tries to show people their own hypocrisy about the use of animals for consumption and leather production. If anything, her works form a extreme incentive for the discussion of our morals and the way society is developing.

These actions often leave her with a lot of negative feedback. From all corners of the web people have used the relative anonimity of the internet to send her the most foul death wishes. Fascinated by the enormous anger and cruelty of these messages, she tried to find the people behind them. To her surprise these were ordinary people living ordinary lives. For these people the internet was a faceless funnel for their anger, a one-click way of justifying their indignance. TINKEBELL's reaction to this flood of hatemail was publicizing a book, called 'dearest TINKEBELL,', in wich she identifies these anonimous criticasters. In this way she defies the awkward position of an artiston the internet. She no longer is just the reciever of all this faceless anger, but takes charge in responing to it.

TINKEBELL.s 'Lassie' presented by TORCH Gallery during ART Rotterdam 2009

Source: http://www.looovetinkebell.com/pages/art-rotterdam-2009

In the public performance 'Her name is Sarah,..' TINKEBELL. takes a dead dog dressed in a cute outfit for a walk Downtown Chicago (U.S.). 

When asked what she is doing while dragging the animal over the streets, she consequently answers by saying: 'Her name is Sarah,..'.

The performance undoubtably refers to the meaning of the animal within upper (middle) circles, in which much more then a living being, the animal is used as a commodity article: as part of an individuals carefully build image and ego, rather then being acknowledged as a being with own needs and characteristics.

The oblivious character of the 'answer' that she provides her public with in this work, relates to the detached, fully commercially appropriated significance of animals in our present society.

'TINKEBELL.', a lady completely dressed in pink, referring to a completely innocent, sweet, naive girl, inflicting these symbols of friendlyness with acts of a violent nature.

It is not only the performance itself that generates a reaction of shock, but especially the lines of text spoken by 'TINKEBELL., for not only is the act of walking a dead dressed dog shamelessly executed, within the act itself, this is above all not acknowledged as such.

source: http://looovetinkebell.com/pages/her-name-is-sarah

the FACEBOOK PAGE of the "artist":

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LoooveTinkebell/129773400412004

her WEBSITE:

http://looovetinkebell.com/pages/sam 

Her email address:

  tinkebell@tinkebell.com

the PETITION: 

http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-animal-killing-artist-katinka-simonse-to-justice

SOURCES:

http://looovetinkebell.com/ 

http://www.facebook.com/notes/collectif-4c-contre-la-categorisation-des-chiens/tueuse-empailleuse-et-marionnettiste-danimaux-morts-par-atome-sag-coalition/10150252039455117

(copy received via this/my website/guestbook on Wednesday, 01 June 2011 17:10)

PAULA DENMON 

email to tinkerbell:

We are pissed off. All 20 million or so of us. Stop abusing and killing animals now. It is not ART.

I know art, and this is not it.

What Michael Vick did was not sport and yours is not art.

You are up against a very powerful force. So take down your dead animals, and find a legitimate way to express yourself.

Look at the great artists of the past. They may express horror and war and betrayal, but it is with their talent in the medium. Not using dead bodies in grotesque ways.

Your "art" is going viral. Maybe that is what you want. But be willing to sacrifice your freedom for it, because each animal that you kill can cost you time in prison.

Maybe contact Michael, and see how it was for him.

Even some very hardened criminals would not harm an animal, and don't like others who do.
Not a threat.; a promise!

Paula Denmon
Animal Advocate

Source: 

http://brodypaetau.com/recent-works/dog-carpets-2007-by-ondrej-brody-and-kristofer-paetau

Interview with Ondrej Brody and Kristofer Paetau by Kristofer Paetau, april 2008.

What is this project about?

Ondrej: The dog carpets are essentially about society’s hypocrisy. It questions the special status that dogs and cats have in our, western society. Although we can see that in China, despite the local culture and cuisine, the pet culture is on its rise as well. The Bolivian experience was about hypocrisy as well, but it involved on a larger and direct scale mechanisms and structures within the society.

Kristofer: It’s about the tradition of producing carpets with wild animals as a hunting fetish. But in this case we were using an inappropriate animal, a pet – and like this we wanted to question the values behind this tradition. Ondrej was speaking to me about this idea already before the Bolivia show, but when I got the opportunity to participate in that show I thought it would be interesting to realize the dog carpets there with Ondrej, mainly for three reasons: more adventure, lower production costs and the problem of street dogs in South America (in contrast to the beloved inhouse pet in North America and in most European countries).

How did you proceed to realize the work and how important was the local context for realizing the work?

Ondrej: The context is always important. In fact in comparison to most countries in Europe, in Bolivia (La Paz) there is a great concentration of street dogs. We were informed then, that there is a municipal company called Zoonosis which is in charge of hunting street dogs and dealing with animals within the city of La Paz. They catch about 100 dogs a week and execute them every friday noon. We were supposed to prepare a project that would take place in a city Museum called Museo Tambo Quirquincho. The communication with Zoonosis was relatively simple, since both institutions were run by the city. We requested to obtain 10 sacrificed dogs for our “installation”. This seemed to be a perfect paradox. A hunting carpet from a dog that is being hunted by the society.

Kristofer: The local context was striking: when we went out in the center of the city at night there were dogs all over the streets eating garbage. We discovered that there is a whole municipal organisation dealing with the problem of street dogs in La Paz. The municipal service Zoonosis is hunting for street dogs during night time and collecting the dogs in a kind of dog prison and then killing them, about 100 dogs every week. We went to visit Zoonosis and talked to them about our project and we also explained our project to the director of the Museo Tambo Quirquincho. She wrote a recommendation letter for us and with this letter we went to Zoonosis again and met with the director. He signed and gave us a small post-it to authorise us to get 10 killed dogs the following week…

Tell us about the killing. Did you assist to it and if yes, how did you feel and what did you think about at that moment?

Ondrej: The killing was a terrible experience. We arrived to Zoonosis maybe one hour before they began with the execution. About half an hour before they started with the execution, the dogs were quite restless, nervous, barking a lot as if this was their last chance to show that they’re alive. When they started killing them the whole cage was in complete silence. I’m sure that the dogs were completely aware what was going on…

Kristofer: Yes we assisted to the killing, which took place around one o’clock in the afternoon. The gates were closed so nobody could see what happened from the outside. The place became completely calm and the dogs stopped barking. I was nervous. I had taken my digital camera because I wanted to record something of this moment – which was of course forbidden – and at the same time it was absolutely not the moment to make photographs… So I nervously pushed the button a couple of times without really looking. Hiding away with the camera from the 5 or 6 guys running around making injections to the dogs with big plastic bottles filled with poison. All dogs pissed and shitted after they got the injection. They died in about 30 seconds and were left there lying in their own excrements. I felt miserable.

What happened after the killing?

Ondrej: After the execution Zoonosis offered us a transport of the cadavers to the taxidermist….or sort of taxidermist…we did some research before (there is no training or career of taxidermy in La Paz) and seemingly the only person who could help us to realize the taxidermy was working in the Museum of Natural history… as a guard. He was also responsible for most taxidermy work within the Museum. The quality of the exhibits were quite terrible but we didn’t have any other choice.

Kristofer: We were asked to chose “our” 10 dogs which were put aside for us and put into plastic bags. The act of picking 10 freshly killed dogs out of maybe 80 killed that day was also like straight out of a nightmare, but I was surprised and terrified to see how easily I started looking at the dead bodies just as aesthetic objects, trying to make the best choice. Zoonosis then gave us a ride with the dead dogs to the Museum of Natural History, where we had found the only taxidermists of La Paz: the janitor of the museum and his friend the night-guard who practice taxidermy as a self-taught hobby (doing the taxidermy for the collections of the Museum of Natural History of La Paz as well). The taxidermy that those two fellows did was horrible. You could still feel and see the meat and the bones in the legs and the dogs were stinking like hell…

How did you display the work in the Museo Tambo Quirquincho?

Ondrej: The carpets were not ready for the opening. They were still wet and extremely stinking. We decided to hang the dog carpets in the patio of the museum in a way like you hang clothes to dry. The idea was that the dogs would be drying during the time of the show. Visually it was certainly a freak show.

Kristofer: We could not show the work as planned since the dogs were not dry yet. So we wanted to just put them up to dry outside, in the courtyard of the museum. This was a terrible “installation”. But since the whole show was all about “the process”, we and the curators accepted this display. The museum director didn’t like it though, so the next day we had to put them into a smaller courtyard where the public could not see them. But since the show was about the process, the museum was open for visitors before the opening as well and the display of the hanging dogs was seen by a couple of persons on that one day when we first hang them up to dry in the courtyard of the museum…

What were the reactions to the work in Bolivia, La Paz?

Ondrej: It created a scandal. The animal right people pushed the Mayor to investigate the matter and ordered the same city company, Zoonosis – that gave us the dead dogs – to give him a report and an explanation of the situation. So what Zoonosis did was to enter into the Museum and steal the carpets from the show with the help of the Museum director herself… it was a complete paradox since we had all the legal and written permissions from the Museum and from Zoonosis to realize our project. We got a phone call to the hotel where we were staying and ready to leave from Bolivia the next morning, informing us that somebody is taking away – stealing our work. The scandal was covered extensively by the media… Different TV channels issued interviews and even set a confrontation between us and the animal right defenders…

Kristofer: During the one afternoon that the dogs were on public display in the courtyard of the Museo Tambo Quirquincho some visitors saw them and created a scandal, alerting TV stations, animal rights associations and making a lot of direct pressure on the mayor of La Paz, who actually has both the Museo Tambo Quirquincho and the Zoonosis under his control, since both institutions are municipal… So a couple of days later we got a phone call from the curator of the show, telling us that the dogs have been “removed” and that there is nothing we can do to get them back. The mayor had ordered Zoonosis to go to the Museo Tambo Quirquincho and remove the dogs, in collaboration with the director of the museum. When we arrived to the museum there were several TV crews there making interviews. We tried to get hold on the tapes from the different TV channels but because of the lack of cooperation of the director of the museum and of the bolivian curator we did not have a chance. We had our return flights the next day so there was no time to organize anything really. We even heard from the transport company we had hired to transport the dogs and other works we had made, that the mayor of La Paz had made a new law the same day, making it illegal to export dead dogs… Just in case we would have had some more in stock. He was very afraid of losing his job if the scandal would have spread internationally.

You decided to realize the Dogcarpets in Europe after the Bolivian experience. What do you think of this transition?

Ondrej: Well, actually I tried to realize the project in Prague shortly before coming to Bolivia. The idea of the carpets was already about one year old. The carpet itself is an extremely powerful image, which is inevitably confronting the viewer. Hypocrisy is still the main aspect of the work, even though it confronts you on a more personal level. The dogs are obviously pets and not street dogs, which is quite important, since I mentioned the special position pets like dogs and cats occupy within our society. People sometimes develop a closer relationship with their pets than with their own family or friends. Another striking difference is the realization of the taxidermy. I wanted the carpets resembling a bear or a tiger or other hunting carpets which are formally realized very professionally. The dogs and cats were obtained from a pet hospital, where they died mostly from natural causes and the owners didn’t want to take care of the dead bodies…

Kristofer: After Bolivia I went directly to Rio de Janeiro for a residency of 2 months and Ondrej went back to Prague. As we were about to participate together in the Prague Biennale only 2 months later, we decided that we would like to show the Dog Carpets in the Biennale, so Ondrej concentrated on getting the dogs produced in Prague while I was working with rats in Brasil. The Prague dogs came from a hospital where the dogs had died and nobody had wanted to take care of the corpses. They are real pets that were abandoned after death – not street dogs. So the difference is quite big to the bolivian dogs. Also the context is completely different. I was more interested and more involved in the crazy Bolivian adventure, but I think the Dog Carpets – as they turned out finally – are very well made and very disturbing objects.

Source: 

http://brodypaetau.com/recent-works/dog-carpets-2007-by-ondrej-brody-and-kristofer-paetau

The Dubious Art Of Torture

A ghastly story circulating on the Web since last year concerns a performance by Costa Rican artist Guilermo Vargas Habacuc, who tied a starving stray dog in a gallery space in Nicarugua, out of reach but not the smell of food, and let him die. After a deluge of outraged messages, the gallery denied the story, saying the obviously near-death dog had escaped. (Gallery reasoning here, via Edward Hussein Winkleman.

source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/art/2008/03/14/the-dubious-art-of-torture/

Guillermo Vargas 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Vargas

Guillermo Vargas Jiménez,(born September 18, 1975, in San José, Costa Rica) is an artist best known for the controversy caused when he exhibited an emaciated dog in a gallery in Nicaragua in 2007

Life and work

Guillermo Vargas studied to be a special education teacher at the Universidad Interamericana de Costa Rica, but he did not graduate. Vargas describes himself as a self-taught artist. Vargas's media include photography, paintings, performance art, installation art, theatrical dance, and video. He has exhibited In Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as at the Inter-American Development Bank in the United States. Vargas was chosen as one of six representatives from Costa Rica to present at the Bienal Centroamericana Honduras in 2008 and again for the Bienal del Istmo 2010. In June, 2010, two of Vargas's videos were to be presented at the Bienal de Pontevedra in Spain; however, after Vargas showed up wearing a t-shirt that read "camis ETA," his videos were removed from the program.

Exposición N° 1

In August, 2007, Vargas displayed his "Exposición N° 1" in the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. The exposition included the burning of 175 pieces of crack cocaine and an ounce of marijuana while theSandinista anthem played backwards. The work also included an emaciated dog tied to a wall by a length of rope with "Eres Lo Que Lees" ("You Are What You Read") written on the wall in dog food. The work attracted controversy when it was reported that the dog had starved to death as part of Vargas's work. Photographs of the exhibit appeared on the Internet, showing the dog tied to the wall in a room full of standing people. There are no indications in the photos of where or when they were taken, nor of who took them. The outrage triggered by the photos and the allegations that the dog had been left to starve to death quickly spread internationally via blogs, e-mails, and other unconfirmed sources, including internet petitions to prevent Vargas from participating in the 2008 Bienal Centroamericana in Honduras that received over four million signatures. Vargas has endorsed the petition, saying that he, too, has signed it.

Juanita Bermúdez, the director of the Códice Gallery, stated that the animal was fed regularly and was only tied up for three hours on one day before it escaped. Vargas himself refused to comment on the fate of the dog, but noted that no one tried to free the dog, give it food, call the police, or do anything for the dog.

Vargas stated that the exhibit and the surrounding controversy highlight people's hypocrisy because no one cares about a dog that starves to death in the street. In an interview with El Tiempo, Vargas explained that he was inspired by the death of Natividad Canda, an indigent Nicaraguan addict, who was killed by two Rottweilers in Cartago Province, Costa Rica, while being filmed by the news media in the presence of police, firefighters, and security guards.

Upon conducting a probe, the Humane Society of the United States was informed that the dog was in a state of starvation when it was captured and escaped after one day of captivity; however, the organization also categorically condemned "the use of live animals in exhibits such as this." The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) also investigated the exhibit. WSPA found the information regarding the issue to be "inconsistent" and met with sponsors of the Honduras Bienal to ensure that no animals would be abused at the 2008 exhibition in that country.

Is This Art? Or Animal Abuse? Animal And Dog Lovers Be Warned…

Source:

http://www.theginblog.com/2007/10/artist-chains-up-dog-until-it-dies-is-this-art-or-animal-abuse/

From Raven of HelpingAnimals.com (4/24/08):

I wrote to PETA about this, and this is their response:

Many stories-sometimes conflicting-have been circulating about these events, and it has been difficult to verify the reports that we’ve received.

Because the initial exhibit with the dog took place in Nicaragua, which has no cruelty-to-animals laws, Vargas cannot be charged with a crime at this time.

Our investigations department is aware that Vargas will participate in a show in Honduras in November. It has been reported that a Honduran group, the Honduras Association for the Protection of Animals and their Environment (AHPRA), has secured the event organizers’ word that the event rules will prohibit animal abuse. PETA’s caseworkers are monitoring this situation and will take further action if we get word that Vargas plans to repeat the exhibit with the dog. People often commit heinous acts in a bid to gain attention, so it is important to refrain from encouraging them by giving them the attention that they clearly crave. For more thoughts on this issue, please visit http://blog.PETA.org/archives/2008/04/artist_starving.php.

Exactly what happened at the exhibition in Nicaragua last year may be uncertain, but it is clear that millions of homeless animals are at risk of starvation, disease, violence and death in our own communities right now. To learn more about things you can do to make a difference for these animals, visit http://www.HelpingAnimals.com

• NBC10 Webisode Video on Vargas (Thanks Jim!)

This is one of those things you come across and just have to blink a couple times and ask, “is this real?”. In fact it is.

Guillermo Habacuc Vargas had 2 children catch this dog. He paid the kids for this. He then chained the dog and used the dog as “art”. He told everyone not to feed this dog. The dog died in the gallery. He calls himself an artist. I call him an animal abuser. In that event, (in which the dog died) he was chosen to represent his country in the “Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008″.

There is a petition to ban him from this event, which you can visit by clicking this link.

After reading that and digging around, I found this site with a little more information on the incident:

A Costa Rican artist found himself in hot water with the animal protection people in his home country after using a starving, sick street dog as part of an exposition in Managua, Nicaragua, in August. Guillermo “Habacuc” Vargas allegedly found the dog tied up on a street corner in a poor Nicaragua barrio and brought it to the showing. He tied the dog, according to furious animal lovers, in a corner of the salon where it died.

 

Here is another link about the incident as well, although it’s in another language and I’ve been unable to translate it thus far.

There will always be cultural boundaries and different definitions of what is defined as “art”, but I’ve always maintained that any sort of suffering is pointless. Especially when something like this was preventable.

If this post strikes you, here are a few links to do something about other dogs stuck in terrible conditions:

Save A Dog – Foster A Dog, Save A Life

Can We Help You Keep Your Pet – Abused Dogs

Help Stop Dog Abuse

Source:

http://www.theginblog.com/2007/10/artist-chains-up-dog-until-it-dies-is-this-art-or-animal-abuse/

QUINTA-FEIRA, 11 DE DEZEMBRO DE 2008

An Exemple/Um Exemplo

I'm very sorry I have no way to keep people informed about Guillermo Habacuc Vargas case.

What I know is what I search on the Internet, and Puerto Rico media does not answer my questions. I sugest you contact P.E.T.A. to know what's up with "artist" Guillermo Vargas.

In the meantime, on Santiago de Chile streets, a dog did what vargas never would do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgjyhKN_35g

Lamento não poder manter-vos informados acerca deste caso. Sei apenas o que recolho na Internet, e a Imprensa de Porto Rico não responde ás minhas questões.
 
Sugiro que contactem a P.E.T.A. para saberem mais.
 
Entretanto, nas ruas de Santiago do Chile, um cão abandonado fez algo que vargas nunca faria:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgjyhKN_35g

POSTADO POR ANIMALRIGTHS ÀS 09:59   50 COMENTÁRIOS 

SIGN THE PETITION!

Sign The Petition, please!

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

Blog Remember Natividad !!!
http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/2007/10/guillermo-habacuc-vargas-admits-on-his.html

Tuesday, 23 October 2007  

Guillermo Habacuc Vargas admits on his new created MySpace page, that he indeed killed the dog!

Here is a part of his original [most recent] statement:

"Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Habacuc Vargas. I am 50 years old and an artist. Recently, I have been critisized for my work titled "Eres lo que lees", which features a dog named Nativity. The purpose of the work was not to cause any type of infliction on the poor, innocent creature, but rather to illustrate a point. In my home city of San Jose, Costa Rica, tens of thousands of stray dogs starve and die of illness each year in the streets and no one pays them a second thought.

Now, if you publicly display one of these starving creatures, such as the case with Nativity, it creates a backlash that brings out a big of hypocrisy in all of us. Nativity was a very sick creature and would have died in the streets anyway"

So there is just this to say: We see, that not only the gallery was lying from the beginning, but also, what we have to think about all statements of this "artist".

We see how he is changing his statement, depending on how the public reactions are - first statement was "the dog would have died anyway" - second statement was "I cannot say if the dog died or not" - third statement was "I wanted to do it to remember Mr.Natividad Canda" [the burglar killed by guard dogs] - fourth statement was "I did the exhibition to show the terrible situation of street dogs".... etc...

The next statement will be obviously "Santa Claus and Ronald McDonald jumped into the exhibition and took the dog" or something like that?!

Source: http://guillermohabacucvargas.blogspot.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/mar/30/art.spain

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/vargas.asp

Please use GOOGLE to search for "Guilermo Vargas Habacuc" and find more related readings

this is the text taken from a Facebook-event-page created by "Looove Tinkebell.":
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144658095604549

Pictures from the website: "Looove Tinkebell." 

http://looovetinkebell.com/pages/on-amy-taxidermy-from-a-true-fan