Scottish Pineapple Becomes An Art Star

Earlier this week, it was widely reported that two students at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland had claimed responsibility for leaving a pineapple in the middle of an exhibition to see if anyone would mistake it for art. When they returned a few days later, they found it had been placed in a vitrine. One of the students posted pictures of the work, which the two students titled “Pineapple,” on Twitter. It has since gone viral, prompting both ridicule and serious art criticism on social media.

Yesterday, The New York Times published an article called “How a Humble Pineapple Became Art,” interviewing one of the students and one of the organizers of the Look Again festival, of which the exhibition is a part. “We weren’t sure how the glass case got there, and initially assumed it was bungling curators,” the student told the Times. “We couldn’t believe our eyes, and didn’t expect our lowly little supermarket pineapple to become a global star.”

“This pineapple was nothing more than a prank,” said an associate director of the festival. The Times noted her statement was made “with amusement tinged with slight irritation.”

This morning, the Evening Express broke the news that it was university janitor Ian Gray who placed the pineapple in the case, reporting that a spokesman for the university said Ian was working and therefore unavailable for comment.