This November Perth’s Cultural Centre will be awash with the heavy debating and policy making… of dachshund. No, your eyes don’t deceive you and there is not a pot of glue unscrewed under this journalist’s desk: Dachshund U.N. is coming to Perth.
After its debut at Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival this May, Perth artist Bennett Miller brings this unique installation / performance piece to Northbridge. It’s part joyful exploration, part sociopolitical commentary.
‘I like how they always seem blissfully unaware of their own restrictions,’ Miller said of his affinity with the dachshund.
‘They remind me of the better parts of human nature- they persevere and remain very proud- despite essentially being cruelled by circumstance with those tiny legs. They are simultaneously inspirational and pathetic.’
The objective of Dachshund U.N. is many and varied: it’s a comment on the fragile state of the United Nations, but it’s also goes deeper, traveling into the political history of the how this body was formed. As Miller admits, most people just love to laugh at the dogs.
‘Because I love the dachshund, I assume other people will see their beauty and determination, and in that way, whilst the work acknowledges the limitations of the UN- which are many- it also intends to celebrate the beauty and determination of the UN as an aspirational, important, necessary, brave idea.
‘The work was originally conceived for the Next Wave festival, which in this instance was themed No Risk Too Great, so it sits within that context.
‘In that sense it’s more positive, it’s about how the inherent risk of failure – eg in setting up the real UN (or in making dogs hold a ‘meeting’ that won’t ‘work’) – doesn’t matter – the very idea of the UN is doomed to fail- mostly because sovereign nations are so reluctant to ‘share’ their power- but it’s still worth trying, and it’s still beautiful. I tried to make my project like that.’
Of course, not everyone took to Miller’s work with such glee.
An opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by Debbie Lustig suggested that perhaps the dogs involved had ‘lost their dignity’ after being made to ‘stay put’ for 45 minutes.
‘All of the owners were under strict instructions to remove their dogs from the structure if they were uncomfortable and we had substitute dogs at the ready to replace them,’ Miller said in response to Lustig’s opinion piece.
‘She described the dogs as being these victims of cruelty, but in truth it wasn’t clear what they were thinking at all.
‘For all we know that may have been the social event of the century for a dachshund, but I simply placed my trust in the judgment of the owners. They know their pets the best and if they were of the opinion that the dogs were having a bad time they would remove them.
‘If 45 minutes in the one spot is cruel and undignified, then so many of the things we do to a domesticated animal are an abuse of their rights, like when people tie their dog to a chair at the café, put them in a car, leave them inside when they go to work, some people even take them on long haul flights.’
Miller said that the article generated an interesting online debate, and while it did shift the focus from human rights to animal rights, Miller stressed that the foremost concern for him has always been – and always will be – that of the dachshunds.
‘I would hate it if something happened to one of the dogs in my project, I love them and actually think they have more dignity than me, but the fact is the project is probably harder on the owners than it is on their pets, as they spend the whole time crouching underneath them.’
Dachshund U.N. will appear in the Perth Cultural Centre on Saturday November 6 and 13 from 2pm. It is a free event. www.pica.org.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
