The Poop Vigilante is ready to reveal himself to the world, and it turns out he’s a very tall dude in a plaid shirt who makes poop art on his roof. Hey, everybody’s got a hobby.
We first wrote about the vigilante here after he placed posters, poop samples and framed photos of poop on West 83rd and 84th streets last week. He wrote in an email sent today to West Side Rag that his name is Phil Kirkman and says on his website that he’s a “New York City based maker of random content.” He has chronicled his exploits at www.pooproject.com.
It turns out the poop he placed in glass jars at the foot of trees was actually a peanut butter and chocolate mixture. (So if you ate it by accident, you’ll probably survive.)
Kirkman’s done other performance art-humor projects before and you can see them on his website. (His other projects include a beefcake taxi driver calendar which is pretty hilarious.) Check out the “Poo Project” video below, and our brief email Q&A with him below that:
The Offender from Man Hattan on Vimeo.
West Side Rag: Why do this in such elaborate fashion?
Kirkman: I’m an artist by trade so I attacked it from a few different angles – highlighting the poor enforcement of the law, suggesting a solution (albeit one that probably isn’t practical right now), executing the stunt, and providing some education/information on the topic – to amplify the message.
WSR: Do you think dogwalker behavior has changed since you started?
K: I highly doubt it – although I didn’t go into it thinking we would see a change in behavior as a direct result. In fact, someone actually let their dog poop right near one of the frames. The goal was more to raise awareness with those willing to listen. Accost any New Yorker or suggest a different way of acting and you’re sure to be met with vitriol rather than open-mindedness. I’ve lived here long enough to know better.
WSR: Any response to complaints the glass on the frames has broken and now litters the street?
K: Any broken glass from the frames was promptly cleaned up as I regularly checked the area. Maybe not as quickly as some would like, but I did my best. To my knowledge, no jars were broken. At this point, there isn’t any glass littering the sidewalks, plant beds or the street. Everything was picked up and cleared last week.
When society was more civilized, dog owners actually curbed their pets when they took them out to do their business. Today, as an unintended result of pooper scooper laws, people feel free to allow their animals to urinate and deficate right in the middle of the sidewalk leaving puddles, piles and smears that the rest of us have to walk around (if you’re lucky). Sidewalks have become a biological obstacle course of animal waste because people are too lazy to walk their pets the three extra steps to the roadway when they know full well that Fido is getting ready to take a dump.
You would be shocked at how many people do not know what “Curb your dog” actually means. Their responses were pathetic, and when I explained it to them, they were surprised.
As someone who lives/walks my dog (and always cleans up after him) right next to these blocks, this little “art project” just made me convinced that a psychopath with a lot of free time lived on my block and was probably watching me. Happy to know it was just an “art project,” but not sure what difference it made. I read somewhere that most of the “dog shit” you see on the street doesn’t really come from dogs, but it’s really humans who don’t think they have another option. #notallpups
I would be interested to know what publication it was that made a statement like that and what evidence they have to support it. Trying walking down WEA, there is usually dog crap in one or more spots every block. I cannot believe that given the traffic on WEA and the fact that there is next to no place to hide that if that many people were dropping their pants and taking a dump in the middle of the sidewalk that it wouldn’t be noticed.
Thank you for picking up after your dog.
You “read somewhere”? I’d really be curious as to where you read that….
I didn’t realize we had so many fact checkers here – I tried googling and turned up nothing – it could have been nothing more than an equally unsourced internet comment that stuck in my head! But I DID read it, and that’s as far as I’m going to go :).
I like to see a vigilante focus on the cigarette butts on 93rd st. sidewalk between Bway and WEA. They are littering the northeastern most area slightly down the hill!