Hot Dog Stick

Mexico City-based artist Yoshua Okón presented a new video commission that examined the cultural significance and history of the Pit Bull. Assembling a group of fifteen dogs, the artist orchestrated a highly ritualistic, choreographed, and synchronized spectacle that was captured and exhibited at Glow, a biannual event in Santa Monica that presents new commissions by international, national, and local artists.

With Hot Dog Stick, the artist explored the coexistence of humans and animals, notions of violence, and the pervasive (mis)conceptions of how these two items relate. As is characteristic of Okón’s work, a deliberate artificiality melds with a peculiar adherence to actuality to humorously investigate institutions and structures, labor, and entertainment.

In 2010, Yoshua Okón was an artist-in-residence at the Hammer Museum. The Hammer Museum’s Artist Residency Program was initiated with funding from the Nimoy Foundation and is supported through a significant grant from the James Irvine Foundation.