Material: polystyrene foam, Rubber rope

Shoe catalogues do not only depict shoes. The more expensive the shoes, the more likely the catalogues are to have an upscale look and to feature elaborate photographs of staged fashion shoots focused on models showing off the footwear. All visual elements except for the models were removed and drawings of plinth elements in different styles added. This resulted in a rewardingly playful approach to found pictorial elements. In one image only a woman with a shaggy dog were left, then eventually all that remained was the dog on a plinth. The dog plinth was born.

Watching and approaching people walking their dogs while out and about invites a performative response. The series of works “Dog Plinths in the Municipal Woods” was the result.

People like to be accompanied by dogs; greyhounds, pugs, poodles and crossbreeds. Independent of whether they bark, growl, whimper, pant or bite, they all share their unconditional devotion to their owners. Stackable Styrofoam models were what was called for, reminiscent of abstracted dog paw prints, designed in different sizes, for the small to the very large quadrupeds. The models were to be connected flexibly and rotatable in opposite directions. The most diverse of constellations may be created by nesting these module stacks. Dog owners can then configure these to perfectly fit their respective dogs and as appropriate to the breed. This requires time, tranquility and leisure. Anyone wanting to have a go will be confronted by a Lego construction kit of sorts and will be forced to address their relationship with their dog unprepared. The game calls for the owners to draw on their capacity to conceive three-dimensional objects on the spur of the moment and to then adapt these in a creative act to thesize and the particular characteristics of the dog in question, its character, courage and play instinct.

The dog must be able to climb up and then stand on top of the object stack. The right proportions must be selected when it comes to step size, steepness, overall height, platform and approach.

While the system is simple, the possible combinations are almost infinite. You can simply build a horizontal or vertical structure, a rational or minimalistic one, but structures that are jagged, wild and imaginative are also possible. Most dog owners derive a great deal of pleasure from building such pedestals, seeing as the latter take on the appearance of rampant giant mushrooms, especially when placed in natural settings. Their response tends to include deliberations on how resilient the Styrofoam plinth clouds might be –along with self-depreciating comments on people’s abilities as designers.

As the dogs in turn finally climb the pedestals laboriously erected for them, some will do so enthusiastically and other with apprehension. Many of them hesitate to begin with. They do not like standing on Styrofoam and feel unsure of themselves. After all, the material is foreign to them. They are accustomed to hard and soft surfaces under their paws, but the artificiality of the material unsettles them, and maybe the unnatural shapes do too. But dogs will go to great lengths to please! Especially when helped onto the pedestal by their master or mistress and the latter doesn’t spare the praise. The builders of said structures themselves seldom want to join their four-legged friends on the monument, even if its carrying capacity is beyond doubt.

What brings them joy is their pride in their canine! All of the owners want a photo of their pedestalled darling. These photographs have since found their way into the dog owners’ living rooms, in homage to the brave pups.