Poopy Flags

January 24, 2005 12:48 PM

Best. Protest. Ever. If you read the story last week about an artist in Bayreuth, Germany who's been sticking little American flags into piles of dog crap, here [via jwz via bb] is what looks like that artist's official site.
posted by mediareport (78 comments total)

Best. Protest. Ever.

Dooty humor (NTM deliberate trolling) is now the peak of protest?
posted by jonmc at 12:51 PM on January 24, 2005

"We have sent out extra patrols to try to catch whoever is doing this in the act,"

Then what? Extra patrols? I didn't realize violent crime and theft were at such low levels in Bayreuth.
posted by 2sheets at 12:53 PM on January 24, 2005

Makes me think puerile.
posted by Captaintripps at 12:59 PM on January 24, 2005

I thought socially conscious artists were supposed to pick up after their dogs like everyone else.
posted by terrier319 at 12:59 PM on January 24, 2005

The original artiste is in Germany, planting little U.S. flags in dogshit; this website is based in SF and is instead offering tiny GWB flags. Admirable efforts all around, but maybe not the same folks.

This brings me back to the mid-'90s in the Lower East Side, where for months somebody kept covering dog droppings with brightly multicolored cupcake sprinklies.

/pines for the apolitical poo-based art statements of the Clinton years
posted by lisa g at 1:00 PM on January 24, 2005

Funny as hell. What's funnier, though, is that the cops are going to waste their time trying to stop it.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:00 PM on January 24, 2005

The news story says "American flags," odinsdream, so I assumed the Bush flags are simply the latest version. You may be right, though; these may be the only ones. And come on, jonmc, stop being so fucking serious. It's a freaking beautiful Dada meme that's both funny *and* easy to morph and spread. It's a *perfect* attention-getting protest - better than smashing in Starbucks windows, that's for sure.

Legal experts said there was no law against using faeces as a flag stand and the federal constitution was vague on the issue.

I love it. I looked for this site for hours after I read that story, but couldn't find anything. Turns out jwz had linked it back in October.
posted by mediareport at 1:01 PM on January 24, 2005

I find this amusing and would like to participate, but I wish the folks where I am weren't so conscientious about picking up after their dogs.
posted by Specklet at 1:04 PM on January 24, 2005

And come on, jonmc, stop being so fucking serious.

Serious has nothing to do with it. I just prefer my humor funny.

And taking a symbol that means a lot to people and placing it in what many would see as a degrading setting is going to alienate and infuriate more people than it's going to galvanize, thus making it a rather ineffective protest.

It's a freaking beautiful Dada meme that's both funny *and* easy to morph and spread.

Try it in New York and see if the guy sweeping up the sidewalk thinks so.
posted by jonmc at 1:05 PM on January 24, 2005

Oh, and as for the "deliberate trolling" accusation, I'd like to state for the record that it's the creativity of the method, not the kneejerk anti-Bushism, that makes this a great protest. Apologies for the unfortunately unclear wording. I'm honestly impressed by the simplicity of this funny, funny stunt. Bravo.
posted by mediareport at 1:05 PM on January 24, 2005

OK, if it's pictures of Bush that's marginally better (but still dumb). The original post said "American flags." I'm not a flag-worshiper by any means but I think desecration/degrading of it causes more problems than it solves.
posted by jonmc at 1:07 PM on January 24, 2005

This brings me back to the mid-'90s in the Lower East Side, where for months somebody kept covering dog droppings with brightly multicolored cupcake sprinklies.

Now that's funny.
posted by terrier319 at 1:09 PM on January 24, 2005

(WARNING: links are to images which are likely familiar but still possibly shocking and probably nsfw)

I don't know. I can think of some other protests that have had a lot more impact on myself and the world as a whole. I'd chuckle if I saw it but I think it gets a D overall.
posted by baphomet at 1:09 PM on January 24, 2005

Ah, thanks for clarifying, Lisa; I missed that on preview. Then I guess the Bayreuth flags remain undocumented, at least anywhere I can find them.

This brings me back to the mid-'90s in the Lower East Side, where for months somebody kept covering dog droppings with brightly multicolored cupcake sprinklies.

See, that's what I'm talking about. Take garbage laying in the streets and turn it into art. Beautiful.
posted by mediareport at 1:11 PM on January 24, 2005

I just prefer my humor funny.

Last time I checked, humor was subjective.
Some things are nearly universally hilarious, however.
(Such as people who think that their brand of subjectivity is the standard by which all others should be judged.)
posted by spock at 1:11 PM on January 24, 2005

"is going to alienate and infuriate more people than it's going to galvanize"

I'm not interested in galvanizing anything with war criminals, polluters or bigots. The flag of the united states was effectively planted in a pile of dog shit on the day of the staged beheading of Saddam's statue.
posted by 2sheets at 1:15 PM on January 24, 2005

extra patrols? Hahahaha. Yeah. They have us working in shifts!
posted by pmbuko at 1:17 PM on January 24, 2005

I'm not interested in galvanizing anything with war criminals, polluters or bigots.

So, anybody who might be offended must be a war criminal, a polluter or a bigot?

Omniscience must be a terrible burden, 2sheets, how do you bear it?
posted by jonmc at 1:17 PM on January 24, 2005

second, jonmc. The poop-artist makes no arguments, and contributes nothing, and leaves no room for rebuttal. He just states. It's philosophically rude. Might as well be burning a cross.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:20 PM on January 24, 2005

Pretty funny for a Nazi.
posted by orange clock at 1:24 PM on January 24, 2005

GODWIN!!!

:)
posted by kaemaril at 1:27 PM on January 24, 2005

Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism dude, at least it's an ethos.
posted by LionIndex at 1:27 PM on January 24, 2005

The poop-artist makes no arguments, and contributes nothing, and leaves no room for rebuttal. He just states. It's philosophically rude.

I'm sure Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and all the rest are very very sorry. That's the most ridiculous statement about art I think I've ever read here. So, "just stating" your art without leaving "room for rebuttal" is now "philosophically rude"? Good lord, that sure does cover an awful lot of 20th century art.
posted by mediareport at 1:34 PM on January 24, 2005

The poop-artist makes no arguments, and contributes nothing, and leaves no room for rebuttal.

I'm fairly sure the job of the artist is not to make arguments. You have the opportunity to express yourself in any way you choose by way of rebuttal. And as to contributing nothing, if the work/prank creates a collusion of symbols in a public space that makes my puerile inner self smile, that's something.

(Best. Protest. Ever. is, of course, Over. State. Ment.)
posted by liam at 1:42 PM on January 24, 2005

Good lord, that sure does cover an awful lot of 20th century art.

The post said "best. protest. ever."

Many of us have stated why we think that's a false assertion. Judging it as art is a different matter. Protest on some level seeks to persuade or awaken. Art dosen't neccessarily to either, although it sometimes does.
posted by jonmc at 1:42 PM on January 24, 2005

There is plenty of room for rebuttal. Take out the flag and use it as a toothpick, or put it behind your ear, or wave it proudly, or pick up the poo (mother and I always used that word) and fling at a passerby. You could hold poo and flag aloft and scream, "try burning this one assholes!!!" or, "these colors don't run, they just smell like poo!!" or, "don't tread on me!!!

You are limited only by your imagination.
posted by mokujin at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2005

jonmc got it right the first time. It's smirky, adolescent and pointless, no doubt why so many here mistake it for clever.
posted by mojohand at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2005

I'm sure Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and all the rest are very very sorry.

Riiight. And the guy spray-painting "bush lies" on the sidewalk is Jean-michele fucking basquiat.
posted by Swampjazz! at 1:47 PM on January 24, 2005

Oh my, it's fun to watch everybody get all serious (or not) about flags in poo...
posted by Specklet at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2005

I just bought 1000 of these flags (discount if you buy in bulk, sweeeet), and I plan to re-butt this scoundrel big time. It is time to give old fritzy Kaiser a taste of his own pooey medicine!
posted by mokujin at 1:50 PM on January 24, 2005

The post said "best. protest. ever."

God, you really are serious, aren't you? And here I thought most people got that old Simpsons joke by now.

Anyway, I emailed the SF site asking if the artist had links to the flag-poopers in Germany; he replied he just heard about them now. Independent invention, looks like. One more and we have a movement.
posted by mediareport at 1:53 PM on January 24, 2005

But really, seeing as most American flags are actually made in China, isn't this as much protest of Beijing's unfair labor practices and their currency's connection to the dollar? I think we can all agree that that is a cause worthy of protest.
posted by mokujin at 1:54 PM on January 24, 2005

For there to be poo, someone out there must have first unclenched their buttcheeks. Perhaps we can all learn from this.

So then all those Harry Belafonte "Taliban" flash cartoons pot-9/11 must be the pinnacle of satire.

Just unclench, right?
posted by jonmc at 1:57 PM on January 24, 2005

I'm sure Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and all the rest are very very sorry.

Riiight. And the guy spray-painting "bush lies" on the sidewalk is Jean-michele fucking basquiat.
posted by Swampjazz! at 4:47 PM EST on January 24

I like the stenciled "WAR" underneath the word "STOP" on every stop sign in the greater New York area.

The Stenciler™ had to cover up a number of previously stenciled "DRIVING" before stenciling her own.

Even as I type this post this, a "STENCILING" stencil is being made to guerilla bomb every stop sign north of Baltimore.
posted by orange clock at 1:57 PM on January 24, 2005

... no doubt why so many here mistake it for clever.

I found it neither clever nor did I hate it. Guess I don't fit under your overly large blanket there, son.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:24 PM on January 24, 2005

Riiight. And the guy spray-painting "bush lies" on the sidewalk is Jean-michele fucking basquiat.

So how much do you know about Tristan Tzara, anyway?

The beginnings of Dada were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust...It was this disturbing effect which most interested the young Tristan Tzara. After Ball left Dada in 1917, Tzara became the movement's unquestioned spokesman. "There is a great negative work of destruction to be accomplished. We must sweep and clean."

Tzara's Dada was against everything: art, movements, theories, creation, order... even Dada itself. The word itself meant nothing, and at the same time, everything.

Tzara's final Zurich performance on April 9, 1919 is particularly instructive:

...Some poems by Huelsenbeck and Kandisky, recited by Kathe Wulff, were greeted with laughter and catcalls by a few members of the audience. Then all hell broke loose. A "PoŽme simultanŽ" by Tristan Tzara, performed by twenty people who did not always keep in time with each other. This was what the audience and especially its younger members, had been waiting for . Shouts, whistles, chanting in unison, laughter... all of which mingled more or less anti-harmoniously with the bellowing of the twenty on the platform...

In the second half, Richter gave an address called "Against, Without, For Dada", in which he cursed the audience. Music, or "anti-tunes" by Hans Heusser followed, more dances from Perrottet and a piece by Arp called "Cloud Pump." The audience greeted this with cries of "Rubbish." Walter Serner came to the stage next...and began to read from his anarchistic credo, "Final Dissolution", with his back to the audience.

The tension in the hall became unbearable. At first it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Then the catcalls began, scornful at first, then furious. "Rat, bastard, you've got nerve!" until the noise almost drowned Serner's voice, which could be heard, during a momentary lull, saying the words "Napoleon was a big, strong oaf, after all."

That really did it...the young men, most of whom were in the gallery, leaped onto the stage, brandishing pieces of balustrade...chasing Serner into the wings and out of the building, smashing the tailor's dummy and the chair, and stamped on the bouquet. The whole place was in an uproar.

Tzara was delighted. The "cretinization of the public" had been achieved.

The point, Swamp, is that attacking a dada piece of art as "philosophically rude" is so hilariously off-base it's almost brilliant. Being "philosophically rude" is the *point* of dada art.
posted by mediareport at 2:27 PM on January 24, 2005

It made me think that I don't like George Bush or dog poo. Both of which I knew. And neither of which added much to the other. But the motion that the funny thing is the police fighting it is duly seconded.
posted by imperium at 2:33 PM on January 24, 2005

mediareport: You remind me of a comment that Man Ray made after anti-Dadaist students had broken into a gallery and smashed several of his weird sculptures, including his pretty cool "Object to be Destroyed:"

"Those bastards! They stole my idea!"
posted by koeselitz at 2:41 PM on January 24, 2005

I dig it. I wouldn't call it "protest", just some people letting off steam in a way that will make some people's day, and offend others. I hope the Germans pick up the Bush flags -- it's a more specific and thus fairer target of anger.
posted by uosuaq at 2:42 PM on January 24, 2005

Somewhere, right now, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is laughing his tail off. [Possibly NSFW]
posted by Man O' Straw at 2:46 PM on January 24, 2005

??? Yeah. I was in no way referring to the "philosphically rude" comment, which is ridiculous (and I believe was intended to be). I just think it's, well, a BIT of a stretch to place the guy sticking little US flags in piles of dogshit in such lofty company. Likewise, basing your argument on the presupposition that said pile of flagged dogshit is "a dada piece of art."

I'm certainly not going to argue the nature of dada or art in general into the dust, nor am I going to make assumptions about what dead artists would or would not approve of, but c'mon, man. Actually what would be REALLY dada is if you could figure out how to get your dog to just shit out american flags, and then howl "La Marseillaise."

(and while I appreciate your "Google: tristan tzara+ dada theatre, cut n' paste" efforts, I've done my homework already, ok?)
posted by Swampjazz! at 2:57 PM on January 24, 2005

Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature US flags into piles of dog poo in public parks.

extra patrols? Hahahaha.
If I've read the thread correctly, that was the German Police not the American.

Did I read the thread right? The posts', including the linked ones, wording has some confusion as it says US flag but shows a picture of a Bush flag.
Two artist sticking flags in dog shite. The one located in Germany is using the flag of The United States of America which can be read in the linked article and has no poo art pictured. The one located in San Francisco is using Bush flags which can be viewed on the web.
Was the artist in San Francisco mentioned in any news publications?

Maybe the artist using the picture of Bush on a Flag is educating the dogs by picture. A hint at a better place to poop than on the side walk, a bush.
posted by thomcatspike at 3:03 PM on January 24, 2005

Most cost effective way to protest is to stick a few flags into dog shit, take photos, then distribute on the internet. I'd say this was amazing, but no one I know reads these threads on a regular basis. Guess that's the red state in my less than connected society.
posted by sled at 3:04 PM on January 24, 2005

As for Cheney, here's some more outsider art, courtesy of the recent blizzard in New York.
posted by liam at 3:20 PM on January 24, 2005

Swampjazz!, if you think the "philosophically rude" comment was ridiculous, there's nothing for us to argue about. The reason I brought up Tzara was to counter the ridiculous idea that artists shouldn't be philosophically rude. Anyway, if you want to continue to refuse to see poo-pile flagstands as a piece of dada protest, go right ahead. But your example of "what would be REALLY dada" is just silly.

thomcatspike, the post at boingboing incorrectly linked the two sites, and in my excitement at finally seeing pictures of this sort of thing, I passed along their mistake. The SF guy emailed me this afternoon; he has nothing to do with the (apparently longer-running) German flag-poo-pilers and to my knowledge has yet to be featured in any news articles. I have also yet to find any pictures of the German version.
posted by mediareport at 3:25 PM on January 24, 2005

I'd say this was amazing, but no one I know reads these threads on a regular basis. Guess that's the red state in my less than connected society.
If you're guessing how do you know? Seems the Internet would be read widely through all States during the winter months taking into account that Schools & Universities are in session.

the post at boingboing incorrectly linked the two sites, and in my excitement at finally seeing pictures of this sort of thing, I passed along their mistake.
I realized that as I tried to make my comment about the wording pointed towards them, not you. Who knows this post may be a featured article soon as things seem to go around here.
posted by thomcatspike at 3:33 PM on January 24, 2005

I'll just stay out of this one ... heh.
posted by R. Mutt at 3:52 PM on January 24, 2005

Much apoo about nothing.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:21 PM on January 24, 2005

Speaking as an American, a patriot and former service person I say... that is HI-larious!

Nothing brings a smile to a Founding Fathers face faster than a German playing in poop.

And don't Kraut Kops have anything better to do?
posted by tkchrist at 4:21 PM on January 24, 2005

It's smirky, adolescent and pointless,

I disagree. I believe the SF idea is actually a very smart campaign that could have large scale results-- for one thing it would infuriate Bush & Co.

There is no destruction of property so I am guessing only a littering charge might apply. But while it is easy, cheap, and probably not illegal, it is eye-catching. Enough people doing this, enough media exposure and Bush's name will forever be linked to dog shit. I, for one, am ready to run out and buy some Bush flags!
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:28 PM on January 24, 2005

Try it in New York and see if the guy sweeping up the sidewalk thinks so.

If you earn a living sweeping up dogshit, finding a tiny picture of George Bush planted in it is unlikely to make your day notably less fulfilling.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 5:05 PM on January 24, 2005

Damn if I can find a quick Google reference to it, but this is an idea that steals from advertising, rather than the (more common) other way around.

I can't remember exactly who it was for, I want to say it was a cheap hotel maybe, and it was in Amsterdam, mid 90s, and the campaign was a series of branded flags anchored in dogshit. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Maybe it was Bartle Bogle Hegarty, early?

Oh, and speaking of Anti-American protest, I also wouldn't mind it if, in 2005, we stopped equating Germans with Nazis or calling them Krauts, unless we're using the full rainbow of ethnic or racist stereotypes and epithets. We're at war with Eastasia now, not Eurasia. Get with it.
posted by cloudscratcher at 5:11 PM on January 24, 2005

As a form of protest, it's clever, but I think its message is dangerous in that it confuses 'America' with 'Bush'. I understand the flag is a symbol of the administration as the representative government of the USA, but it also represents a lot more (as jonmc said), and as much as I feel animosity towards certain aspects of USA foreign and domestic policy, there's a lot of good people and good history covered by that flag being dipped in shit there.

cloudscratcher: don't we use 'Frogs' and 'Poms' fairly frequently around here? Ethnic stereotypes flourish. Not saying it's right, but it does seem to pass under the radar regularly.
posted by cosmonik at 5:28 PM on January 24, 2005

There's dog manure in Bayreuth?
posted by IndigoJones at 5:36 PM on January 24, 2005

Lets all just take a deep breath here and ask a more important question (and apologies if someone already asked it, I will admit that reading one-hundred-something comments was daunting): why can't people just pick up after their dogs? I don't know if I have seen enough dog excrement on the sidewalks around here to stage an effective flag-in-poo protest... and here I always thought that Germany was a very clean nation. Even when it comes to dogs.
posted by dazedandconfused at 5:46 PM on January 24, 2005

Cosmonik -- yeah, you're right. "Kraut" can be pronounced with the tongue in cheek, it's true. "Nazi," not so much.
posted by cloudscratcher at 6:15 PM on January 24, 2005

If "Kraut" is for sauerkraut, and "Frog" is for frogs' legs, and so on...

is it "Donut" for Canadians and "McFattyBurger" for US Americans?
posted by five fresh fish at 6:45 PM on January 24, 2005

Yes, and "Chilled Monkey Brains" for Continental Indians.
posted by cosmonik at 6:57 PM on January 24, 2005

is it "Donut" for Canadians and "McFattyBurger" for US Americans?

I thought it was "pea-soups" and "pepsis" for Canadians?

I read a story once where French hookers in WWII refer to American soldiers as "cheeseburgers."
posted by jonmc at 7:09 PM on January 24, 2005

Tim Hortons donut shops account for 40% of the sales of its parent company, which also owns Wendys.

If we're not "donuts," then we must be "timbits."

And rethinking it, I think it's very likely that most of the world calls US Americans "assholes," not "cheeseburgers." But that's just my haphazard guess...
posted by five fresh fish at 8:13 PM on January 24, 2005

its message is dangerous in that it confuses 'America' with 'Bush'

It's a pretty fair statement since we reelected him.

there's a lot of good people and good history covered by that flag being dipped in shit

And there's a lot of good people and good history covered by that Constitution being dipped in shit by the current administration.
posted by bashos_frog at 8:19 PM on January 24, 2005

And rethinking it, I think it's very likely that most of the world calls US Americans "assholes," not "cheeseburgers." But that's just my haphazard guess...

Well, we love you too...
posted by jonmc at 8:42 PM on January 24, 2005

Because we eat assholes!
posted by kindall at 8:54 PM on January 24, 2005

And don't Kraut Kops have anything better to do?

I didn't see any evidence that they are really undertaking anything to stop this. I mean, I can just picture some journalist calling the chief of police in Bayreuth:
"So, Mr. Wiggenheimerklausen, what do you intend to do about the poop-sticker?"
"Ummh, well, we will ... ummh ... send out a few extra patrols and ... err... see if we can catch him the act."

There. I mean what is he going to say? He can't really answer "nothing", can he? The journalist has his soundbite and nobody can verify if the police is sending out extra patrols anyway.

BTW, "Krauts" is not the preferred nomenclature, dude.
posted by sour cream at 9:52 PM on January 24, 2005

Ok, getting in a little late in the conversation here but, can't you all see the artist is clearly making a statement about the inexorable relationship between an asshole and the shit it produces? Mount one of these on a 24ft x 24ft canvas, sign it and he'll be ready to show at any number of major museums.
posted by j.p. Hung at 10:15 PM on January 24, 2005

No, no, no! It's poutine for Canadians!
posted by deborah at 10:47 PM on January 24, 2005

Tzara was delighted. The "cretinization of the public" had been achieved.

Now this, I like.

Also, wasn't there a mosaic somebody made a while back of GWB, consisting of thousands of tiny pictures of buttholes?

There's a tandem gallery show in the making!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:54 PM on January 24, 2005

Serious has nothing to do with it. I just prefer my humor funny.

OH SHIT(ZING) HE GOT YOU GOOD
posted by Dean Keaton at 11:24 PM on January 24, 2005

He is ASSOCIATING GEAROGE W< BUSH IWTJ FECES< SO COOL GenIEUS at MEtalailter
posted by shoos at 11:39 PM on January 24, 2005

Shitmittens.
posted by homunculus at 11:44 PM on January 24, 2005

You think the carpet-pissers did this?
posted by breath at 2:10 AM on January 25, 2005

Any dog owner who lets the dog crap on the sidewalk and then leaves it there is an asshole.

The artist, on the other hand, is doing a public service by placing yellow warning flags on piles of stinking, annoying, even dangerous (very slippery) piles of dog shit.
posted by pracowity at 3:08 AM on January 25, 2005

And rethinking it, I think it's very likely that most of the world calls US Americans "assholes," not "cheeseburgers."

That's 'arseholes'.

Would the French use of 'cheeseburgers' for Americans be an extension of their use of 'rosbifs' to refer to the English?
posted by biffa at 3:34 AM on January 25, 2005

biffa: if I have to guess, yes, just like my earlier references to "pea-soup," and "pepsis" for French-Canadians, since stereotypes have them consuming tons of both, and I've heard "tea-sucker," used to refer to Brits.
posted by jonmc at 7:18 AM on January 25, 2005

I don't think "poutine" works for Canucks 'cause it's primarily a central-Canada thing. Not a whole lot of poutine-eating going on in Western Canada.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:51 AM on January 25, 2005

Legal experts said there was no law against using faeces as a flag stand

...especially if you are talking about the flag of the septic tanks!

(um...rhyming slang...yanks, right?)
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:19 PM on January 25, 2005

... and here I always thought that Germany was a very clean nation. Even when it comes to dogs.

Uh, no. It's Green, but not clean. I come from a mid-sized city in the U.S., and I am constantly amazed at the amount of spit and dog poop there is on the sidewalks and streets here in Germany. It's also not uncommon to see guys pulled off in one of the rest areas here on the Autobahn just taking a piss on the side of the road in front of God and everyone.

Maria Laach has a lake that my friends and I call Poop Lake because the huge amount of dog poop that lines the side of the path down to the water makes the place smell very ... rural. It seems that everyone within 100km walks their dogs there, and since it is in a "natural" setting they feel no need to clean up a something as obviously natural as dog poop.

As for the flag thing, it has gotten way more attention than it deserves. It is only mildly funny/offensive (choose one according to your politics), hardly the kind of thing you would think would make a media source called the "World News." I mean, come on, have people lost all sense of perspective?
posted by moonbiter at 8:39 AM on January 26, 2005

It's kind of a weak follow-up to Piss Christ
posted by nanojath at 8:30 PM on February 23, 2005