Teen Puts Glasses On Ground, Inadvertently Creates Amazing Art

In reference to non-representational art, people often say that their five-year-old could make it. While that’s often somewhat true — the technique involved in producing random splatters of paint isn’t necessarily the same as, say, painting a Rembrandt — it ignores the labor and aesthetic knowledge that goes into producing seemingly childlike art. When you buy a Pollock, for example, you’re really purchasing his groundbreaking theories about eliminating line and representation from his work (nevermind his tortured personal life that ended in a single-car crash related to drunk driving). Now that we’ve said all that, let’s look at these teens that trolled the shit out of some museum patrons when they put their glasses on the floor.

In a stunt worthy of Marcel Duchamp, TJ Khayatan put his glasses on the floor and watched as hapless SFMOMA patrons crowded around them to photograph them. “Upon first arrival we were quite impressed with the artwork and paintings presented in the huge facility,” he told Buzzfeed. “However, some of the ‘art’ wasn’t very surprising to some of us.” Khayatan specified a stuffed animal on a gray blanket as the impetus for his prank. The response from both museumgoers and the internet at large was unanimous in its celebration. Even SFMOMA got in on the fun.

So, is this art? Or a prank? Or what? “I can agree that modern art can be a joke sometimes, but art is a way to express our own creativity,” Khayatan told Buzzfeed. “Some may interpret it as a joke, some might find great spiritual meaning in it. At the end of the day, I see it as a pleasure for open-minded people and imaginative minds.” Honestly, this is good art. Sorry.