Art is Pretense is a Snapchat Lens that identifies and tracks the user’s face and places it within the frame of the Mona Lisa. The Lens is designed such that the entire frame of the painting is filled by the user’s face regardless of angle or position. The framed painting (now bearing the face of the user) appears exactly as it sits in the Louvre, surrounded by onlookers who are each vying for a better view and some of whom are attempting to take photos of the painting. Above this image appears the text “art is pretense,” surrounded by heart and star text icons.
This piece is purposefully disingenuous. All the elements – from the low resolution of the Snapchat photo quality to the insincere presentation of the text – all combine in a way that mimics, and in fact is, a normal social media post. Yet this piece is being presented as art – what, therefore, separates “art” from other creative artifacts? What qualifies this piece as “art” but disqualifies other Snapchat lenses from that title? The problematic use of the label “art” to qualify and distinguish creative artifacts is exactly what this piece was designed to address.
Art is pretense. The whole notion of “art” is a vast conspiracy of pretense, in which artists, curators, and viewers are all co-conspirators, whether they realize it or not. Any person who creates, collects, or appreciates an object, artifact, or idea and imagines that it has any value beyond its objective qualities creates art. That is to say, anything is art as long as someone says its art. To be pretentious is by definition to assume one’s own importance, and that is exactly what happens when one creates art. Art is born out of pretense, always. All art, from Michelangelo’s David to Duchamp’s Fountain, is pretense. Even “good” art. Even your art. Even my art.
Art is Pretense forces the viewer to be self-aware about their own creative process and the judgements they pass and the things they take for granted. However, the piece does not make the claim that art is without value – only that that value isn’t objective, nor is it exclusive to "artists." Creativity is part of being human, and every creative artifact, from the greatest paintings to the lowliest social media posts, is part of the same conspiracy – a long, unbroken chain of pretense stretching back millennia to the very first time a neanderthal thought it was worth his time to draw horses on his cave wall.
