Having nearly exhausted the realm of tangible art that seems like a total put-on, James Franco has moved on to an entirely new, experimental, probably prankish level of seeing what people will accept merely because it bears his actorly aura. He’s collaborated with the art team known as Praxis on the Museum Of Non-Visible Art, a conceptual project “composed entirely of ideas” that “redefines the concept of what is real”—specifically the idea that people will pay upwards of $20 to own a small piece of paper that has his name on it, thus redefining the concept of what they really just spent their money on.
If it’s less about actually owning and appreciating artwork, and more about the tangential cachet you think it affords you, you’ll love the Museum’s catalog, which ranges from “Fur Balls,” 18 separate human head sculptures covered with real human hair to make them “look a bit like a dead animal,” to Franco’s “imagined short film” Red Leaves, based on William Faulkner’s short story of the same name. Because neither of these things actually exist, what you will get instead of a sculpture or a film is merely a title card bearing a description of the piece “to be mounted on your wall, and used when explaining the work” to a crowd of people who are stifling every urge to call you an asshole.
Of course, for the true connoisseur, they’ll want to dream bigger—such as spending $100 on a full-scale imaginary steamboat that was used in Franco’s imaginary movie, which imaginarily floats and features imaginary rooms to live in. Or even dropping $10,000 on “Fresh Air,” which is an endless supply of air all around you, forever, that you can actually breathe. Again, all of these pieces are meant to “open our eyes to the unseen universe that exists at every moment” as “we exchange ideas and dreams as currency in the New Economy.” Also exchanged as currency: currency, which you can give to the imaginary artists here. [via Vulture]