A few years ago I was wandering through the Tate Modern and I found myself in a room filled with nothing but planks, paint buckets, rollers, tarps and ladders. I assumed it was being prepared for an exhibition until I noticed a small sign indicating that this was an exhibition. If the artist intended to create a realistic illusion, he was successful.

I was reminded of this by the big art-related event in the news yesterday, the MIT student at Logan with her circuit-board and battery with matching play-doh wearable installation (UH has all the links).

Even an artistic joke can backfire.

I must be getting old, but I just don't get it. I'll take a Richard Serra slab of steel any day over an artistic practical joke.

On another art note, the court ruled that after years of fighting with the artist, Mass MoCA can display the unfinished work Training Ground for Democracy which involved the building of a small neighborhood and moving it piece by piece into the museum. The judge liked it but I wonder if he realized that he might be part of it. The extended joke here is that some have claimed that the legal actions and artists' demands were orchestrated by the artist -as part of the work.

As I say, I just don't get it.