Opinion

Reactions to Ryan Wong's Joe Scanlan 'Bombshell'

The reaction to Ryan Wong's satirical take on Joe Scanlan's Donelle Woolford project have been intense. Let's take a look.

Hrag Vartanian

June 17, 2014 — 3 min read

Ryan Wong, "Ryan Wong" (2014) (used with permission of the artist) — Ryan Wong, “Ryan Wong” (2014) (used with permission of the artist)

The reaction to Ryan Wong’s satirical take on Joe Scanlan’s Donelle Woolford project has been intense. From confusion to anger, from elation to we’re not sure what, I thought I’d sift through some of them from around the internet and put them together for your (and my) convenience — though I admit some of them are hard to categorize.

Many commenters astutely pointed out that Wong’s piece was the ultimate form of “scanlaning” (aka calling out white privilege in the art world, though definitions of what this term actually means differ — see comments below). I also want to thank Ashton Cooper of Artinfo for clarifying that the post was a “meta-parody,” particularly since many people didn’t seem to realize that.

Now, let’s take a look.