Singapore – It is difficult to put limitations on art because anything and everything can be considered art, especially when displayed in a museum. Singaporean Jack Sim tested the boundaries of art when he placed his pen on the floor of the National Gallery in Singapore.
The same man responsible for the World Toilet Organisation, an advocacy group promoting “one of the best, cheapest medicines out there” that was featured in Nas Daily, Mr Sim went on Facebook to share his latest experiment.
He wrote, “I was at the National Gallery with Naureen Nayyar. I tried this experiment by putting a pen on the floor. Soon, we got the audience wondering how this is a piece of Art and they started taking photos of my pen. After a while, I pick (sic) up my pen and the people realised it was not Art.”
Mr Sim placed his pen on an existing exhibit called 5’ x 5’ (Inched Deep) which is a blank square measuring 5 feet by 5 feet drawn over the space of a wall and the adjoining floor.
“Though it was ultimately not shown, the work (5’ x 5’ Inched Deep) is considered to be one of the earliest examples of conceptual art in Singapore,” states the National Gallery Singapore. “Art historian TK Sabapathy considers this work to be a turning point in the history of Singapore art.”
Netizen Paul Bradley shared a similar experience he had in a museum in Washington, D.C. involving an empty white canvas in a frame which he thought was a replacement while the original painting was being cleaned. It turned out it was a real work of art worth millions of dollars.
Glasses on the floor
Before the pen was the glasses. The New York Times reported the story of two California teens who were unimpressed by some of the exhibits on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and thought that they could take things up a notch.
A pair of Burberry eyeglasses were placed on the floor. Within minutes, the eyeglasses had its own admirers. The teens merely added a placard describing the theme of the display and did nothing else.
Read the Twitter post below:
LMAO WE PUT GLASSES ON THE FLOOR AT AN ART GALLERY AND… pic.twitter.com/7TYoHPtjP8
— papi chulo (@tjohntailor) May 24, 2016
Jack Sim’s post:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2427794903931874&set=a.262824150428971&type=3&theater
LMAO WE PUT GLASSES ON THE FLOOR AT AN ART GALLERY AND… pic.twitter.com/7TYoHPtjP8
— papi chulo (@tjohntailor) May 24, 2016