HalfAChicken.com - 10/7/14 - “Invisible Artwork” Hoax Successfully Trolls the Art World...But Not in the Way You Expect

Originally published on 10/7/14 at HalfAChicken.com
https://halfachicken.com/justinavalon/article/106

Oh man...the headline for this juicy bit of art news hooked me right from the beginning, but actually reading through it only made it juicier.

The above image is a doctored photo of an exhibit in Milan with the actual exhibit removed, courtesy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This was released as part of a hoax by New York-based “artist” Lana Newstrom and radio parodists Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring of This is That, the Canadian counterpart to America’s own satirical news network The Onion. The article that first launched this hoax went live a week ago, and can be viewed here:

http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/2014/09/23/new-york-artist-creates-art-that-is-invisible/

Now, Kelly and Oldring have an infamous penchant for passing off parody and trickery as news, but for some reason, this latest ploy, which fabricated a story of an artist’s “invisible artwork” being bought up for millions of dollars, was actually believed to be real by other news publications. That’s right, online news networks such as Wealthy Debates and Barstool Sports immediately saw through the scheme of blank walls and canvases being passed off as art, yet legitimately believed people were actually buying them up! And who can blame them? It’s such an eccentric and stupidly ridiculous move that only a pretentious self-serving art snob with an account in Aspen would actually consider doing it. How could it not be true?

What’s interesting and endlessly amusing is that while Wealthy Debates and Barstool are talking shit about these alleged rich art collectors for spending money on literally nothing, I’m over here laughing at how seriously they’re taking this hoax story within a hoax story. I mean, how the fuck can you be half-gullible that you would see through the bullshit of one part of the story but not the whole thing?

The theory held by The Guardian in their response article to this latest hilarious development is that we as a culture just hate rich fuckers who are able to throw their money at anything. This hoax story was the perfect opportunity to take jabs at the wealthy art snobs, and these sites did so with gusto and in that respect have earned my applause. (Insert golf clap here).

In the end, however, I feel that the real winners here are the brilliant blokes at This is That for not only successfully trolling the art world with their Inception-style hoax-within-a-hoax, but for educating us on a very essential aspect of human existence, and that is the endless cycle of assholes talking shit about other assholes that pervades our communal existence. For as long as we band together, we will hate on each other together, for just about any little thing.

God bless you, Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring. May your wit be always sharp, and your audiences forever oblivious.

SOURCES

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. – http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/2014/09/23/new-york-artist-creates-art-that-is-invisible/

The Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/sep/30/invisible-art-hoax-lana-newstrom-cbc