‘Pissing Pug’ Statue Near ‘Fearless Girl’ Pisses New Yorkers Off

Taking offence at ‘Fearless Girl’ for disrespecting the art of ‘Charging Bull’, the artist erected the pug.

The statue of the ‘Pissing Pug’ put next to the ‘Fearless Girl’ at Wall Street District. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@girlsreallyrule)

A statue of a urinating dog (dubbed ‘Pissing Pug’) was briefly put next to the statue of the ‘Fearless Girl’ by an artist named Alex Bardega on Wall Street on Monday, 29 May, as protest.

While the fearless girl herself has been at the centre of controversy, the artist of the ‘pissing pug’ received bitter remarks from social media and onlookers for his paper-mache dog taking aim to pee on the girl. He removed his installation himself within three hours when he saw people kicking the pug’s leg.

Bardega admitted to the New York Post that he deliberately gave the dog a ‘crappy’ appearance purposefully giving the dog a shabby appearance to "downgrade” the girl, the way he believes she “downgraded” the Wall Street bull.

He told the Post that the Fearless Girl was nothing more than a “publicity stunt” and a “disrespect” to the artist who created the bull, which he says “had integrity”.

Gardega wanted to draw attention to the fact that the Fearless Girl was sponsored by asset-manager State Street Global Advisors, and in this sense did not stand for feminism but was just “corporate nonsense”. He argued that it had a ‘false front’.

It’s kind of just corporate advertising which I think has totally ruined the Bull.

Gardega to Fortune Magazine

Gardega told The Washington Post that he had respect for the Fearless Girl statue as long as it didn’t interfere with the work of another artist.

Charging Bull artist Di Modica has himself expressed in the past that the Fearless Girl is infringing on his copyright. According to WaPo, he had also considered filing a lawsuit against the competing work of art.

The logic explains itself. The dog invading her space is reflective of her invading the space that belongs to the bull.

Alex Gardega

The Fearless Girl was installed by Delaware-based artist Kristen Visbal, whose aim was to make a statement about the future of Wall Street through the contrast between the bull and the girl.

The hope was to send across a message of female empowerment and leadership for women, and to promote gender diversity in the corporate world.

Many women walking past the statue on Monday replicated the sentiment, and considered the pug ‘misogynistic’. Social media reactions soon followed.