A tweet that went viral is showing how art is very much in the eye of the beholder.
You know those funny stories of someone leaving behind some mundane item on the floor of a gallery (think: a pair of glasses, a discarded piece of fruit, a crumpled up ball of paper) and guests end up mistaking it for high art?
Well, a North Vancouver resident has turned an honest mistake like that into a hilarious, sympathetic and satirical display outside Polygon Gallery.
In 2019, a kid on a BMX was doing tricks in the plaza adjacent to the Lower Lonsdale art gallery when in a spurt of two-wheeled showmanship he got too close to the building and ended up shattering one of the ground-floor windows with his tire.
Mark Teasdale, who prior to the COVID-19 pandemic frequented the gallery often, recently put up a small sign next to the smashed window that made it seem like it was an art installation.
The placard, which mimics similar descriptions that anyone who’s ever been to an art gallery would be familiar with, includes a faux artist’s name, title, year of production, and outlines the artistic medium.
It reads:
Artist Unknown
Youthful Mistakes, 2020
Skateboard on Glass
Artist Unknown
— Mark Teasdale ★ (@MarksGonePublic) June 3, 2020
Youthful Mistake, 2020
Skateboard on Glass
The Polygon Gallery maybe closed but there is some new art to be seen as you walk by. #NorthVan pic.twitter.com/nCmpPIMGwC
When Teasdale tweeted out an image of what he’d done recently, it was retweeted more than 250 times and garnered more than 1,000 likes after another Twitter user caught wind of it and sent out their own tweet.
Teasdale said he was inspired to do his guerrilla art curation after walking by the smashed window and seeing an opportunity to create a little levity.
“There’s just so much turmoil. Twitter’s turned into a bit of a cesspool in the last little bit,” says Teasdale. “With so many people locked down at home, it’s important when we’re going out for walks to change our way of thinking for our own mental health.”
Correction: It was a BMX. But thank to whoever made this sign. It gave all the staff a good laugh today. https://t.co/JvefIue1Rd
— The Polygon Gallery (@PolygonGallery) June 9, 2020
Polygon Gallery director Reid Shier says he and his staff were quite amused by Teasdale’s sign, noting that the only addition they might consider would be to correct it to state it was “BMX on Glass” and it was actually created in 2019.
“It was certainly a well-intentioned joke that we thought was pretty funny,” says Shier.
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