Artist says his dog statue peeing on ‘Fearless Girl’ is not a ‘misogynistic display’

Ever since the “Fearless Girl” statue was placed opposite the “Charging Bull” outside the New York Stock Exchange, it has garnered a lot of attention. The latest reason? Someone placed a paper mache pug to look like it’s peeing on her.

That someone is city sculptor Alex Gardega, according to the New York Post. Angry that the statue of the young girl had warped the original meaning of the “Charging Bull” statue, Gardega decided to create “Pissing Pug.”

“I decided to build this dog and make it crappy to downgrade the statue, exactly how the girl is a downgrade on the bull,” Gardega told the New York Post.

The “crappy” dog statue – as the creator himself described it – was designed to look like it’s urinating on the girl’s left leg. Gardega placed it there Monday morning but removed it by noon the same day, according to Money.ish, because he saw two people kick it and another try to remove it.

“I’m pro-feminism but this isn’t a statue made by an artist standing up to Wall Street, it’s by a corporation,” Gardega told Money.ish. “If they can invade the bull’s sacred space, I can invade its sacred space.”

“Fearless Girl” was placed opposite the bull by State Street Global Advisors, a mutual fund company, which said it was meant to represent the under-representation of women on Wall Street. Critics of the statue, including the artist who designed the bull, Arturo Di Modica, have called it a marketing stunt. But many women have adopted the statue as a feminist symbol, and though “Fearless Girl” was only meant to be an installation for a few weeks, the city has extended its stay to at least a year.

Di Modica has sued the company for trademark and copyright infringement, saying the statue has given his original work of art a negative meaning.

Reaction to “Pissing Pug” was mixed online, but many people called it misogynistic, despite Gardega’s claims that it was meant to be anti-corporation, not anti-feminist.

But some agreed with Gardega’s characterization of the “Fearless Girl” statue.

This story was originally published May 30, 2017 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Artist says his dog statue peeing on ‘Fearless Girl’ is not a ‘misogynistic display’."