Community / Arts
Ernesto earns cult status simply for doing what comes naturally
Photo exhibition tells a story of Brunswick from a dog’s perspective
Mark Phillips
AN eight-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer is the unwitting hero of a pop up photographic exhibition in Brunswick this weekend.
Ernesto.pees.on.tings is the title of an exhibition of 900 photos of … the aforementioned dog, Ernesto, urinating around Brunswick.
The exhibition is the result of a four-year project by Ernesto’s owner, Vincent Ward, which began as an Instagram account during the Covid lockdowns and has gained a cult following over the years.
In each of the black and white photos, Ernesto mostly goes about his business oblivious to Ward’s lens capturing his most private moments for posterity.
Occasionally, Ernesto will turn to the camera with expressions ranging from embarassed to sullen to curious, but mostly a simple, resigned acceptance that he is being exposed to the world.
Ward, 38, an artist, musician and teacher, acquired Ernesto as an malnourished 18-month-old rescue dog. Living in an apartment just metres from Sydney Road, there is no room for Ernesto to exercise at home so Ward takes him for a long walk twice daily – or more accurately, Ernesto takes Ward for a walk and embraces the freedom to empty his bladder outside.
It was during these lockdown walks in the winter of 2021 that Ward first began chronicling Ernesto’s peeing odyssey.
“I’m a bit weird, and I needed to do something a bit different, rather than everyone else baking sourdough or banana bread.
“And I just started taking pictures of him peeing and using Instagram as a simple editing tool, and then I just kept doing it and every day I just posted another photo.
“And then the odd people that found it [on Instagram] kind of liked it … And because I live in Brunswick, it just became this habit of trying to get good photos of old Brunswick places.”
Scrolling through the Instagram account, Ernesto can be seen urinating in Sydney Road, Brunswick’s railway stations, under the Jacinda Ardern silo, in Sparta Place, and under the giant coffee pot at Georges Coffee in Victoria Street, along with on a myriad of bushes, trees, light poles, rubbish bins, fences and abandoned shopping trolleys.
Vincent Ward and Ernesto in the exhibition space where the photos will be displayed this weekend. On the wall is a three-metre tall print of Ernesto produced as a one-off for the show.
The project took on a new life last year when Ward entered an image of Ernesto cocking his leg at the corner of Sydney Road and Victoria Street in a street photography competition run by apartment developer Neometro.
To his surprise, it was unanimously chosen as the winner and later immortalised on a billboard in Union Street, near Jewell Station.
Ernesto has become used to Ward getting the best angle on his phone for a photo, but passers-by sometimes give him strange looks, particularly if he is squatting a ground level. His partner just accepts it as part of Ward’s quirkiness.
Ward says if the project has any deeper meaning, it is that the photos tell a story of Brunswick from the perspective of a dog. As he puts it, Ernesto’s peeing is his way of communicating with other dogs.
“Dogs have this sense of smell and are always sniffing bits where other dogs have peed.
“And sometimes he [Ernesto] really does it [sniffing] quite a long and then has to, you know, add his bit to the story.
“In the end, I don’t think it’s about Ernesto peeing. It’s mostly about just exposing the weirdness and a weird angle of Brunswick that no one really looks at. It’s the dirty corners or the bits that are not for humans, I guess.”
Ward concedes a series of photos of a dog urinating will not be to everyone’s taste, and reactions from people who have previewed the exhibition have been mixed. But he doesn’t really care what other people think.
“While I was setting up, when I had quite about half of the images set up, a woman came in and nearly burst into tears because she thought it was so beautiful.
“And other people walked in and just chuckled. And others I feel just didn’t really get it … I love that everyone actually has something different to it.”
Ward estimates he has taken more than 2000 photos of Ernesto peeing and the collection keeps growing, but for the exhibition he has chosen 900.
It opens at 6pm on Friday in a vacant ground floor space under Nightingale’s Wurru Wurru Biik apartments in Albion Street, opposite Anstey station.
Each image printed for the exhibition will be available for sale for $10 but Ward stresses it is not intended as a money-making exercise.
As for Ernesto, he seems to be unfazed by his cult status.
“Matt from Brunswick Print Lab has printed them up, all 900 of them, and he did a portrait, three metres tall and super high definition. It’s amazing.
“When we unrolled it and hung it up, Ernesto was in the room and didn’t like even look at it. Didn’t blink. I don’t think he sees images. I don’t know what he sees.”
Ernesto.pees.on.tings is open at Wurru Wurru Biik, 219 Albion Street 6-9pm on Friday and 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday.
