Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Depiction of the museum under construction
1. A returning of the Formless to Form (Art). 2. An examination of the commodification of Art and its relationship to the current global economic crisis. 3. An examination of the power structures and network of the elite 'Art World' and 'Art Institutions'. 4. An Archaeology of the Art World, and Art History. 5. The interplay of Time and Space. 6. Transcendence of medium to arrive within the collective consciousness. 7. The annihilating of the boundaries between Art World insiders and Outsiders. 8. The annihilating of the boundaries between Art and Life.
Sun & Rain Works holds a private archive relating to its 2009 engagement with Sotheby's Photographs (sale N08533) and the associated conceptual works (The Auction as Artwork, WTF is Ansel Adams, and www.wtfisart.com). The archive is reported to contain 2008 correspondence with Sotheby's (outbound and inbound), records of the consignment of an Ansel Adams photograph, 'San Francisco from Twin Peaks' (lot 16), domain-registration and hosting receipts for www.wtfisart.com naming Sun & Rain Works, art-referential documentation photographs, and file metadata. These materials evidence the artist identity, the 2008-2009 engagement with Sotheby's, the consignment, contemporaneous conceptual intent, and the public continuity of the 'WTF is Art' concept. They do not, by themselves, record a publicly witnessed live-creation event, and they establish no precedence over any later event. The fuller archive remains held by the studio pending redaction and rights review; no checksums, file hashes, or custody identifiers are published at this time.
Evidence archive: Sun & Rain Works auction engagement (2009)
A linked-open-data record arguing that Metaconceptual Art is a natural, credible, and valid movement through genealogy, defined principles, works on view, machine-readable standards, external alignment, and provenance over time.
Sun & Rain Works asserts a conceptual claim: that in 2009, in connection with the Sotheby's Photographs auction (sale N08533, New York), it designated its auction engagement — the consignment of an Ansel Adams photograph, 'San Francisco from Twin Peaks' (lot 16), together with the associated website www.wtfisart.com — as Metaconceptual Art, framed as the work The Auction as Artwork. This is the artist's own designation, made explicit over time. It is not a publicly witnessed live-creation event and has not been adjudicated as a historical fact; the Sotheby's catalogue lists the lot as an Ansel Adams photograph and does not name Sun & Rain Works. This statement makes no claim of being 'first', and does not name, compare against, or dispute any later artist or event; any such comparison would require independent recognition and separately published evidence.
Sun & Rain Works' conceptual claim to art at auction (2009)
Sun & Rain Works' auction engagement (Sotheby's Photographs, 2009)
Publication of Metaconceptual Art (2026)
Sotheby's Photographs auction (sale N08533, 2009)
A visual anchor for the project: art, price, reform, and institutional display held together as one unstable field.
Supporting documentation is described at evidence-live-auction-2009 and includes 2008 Sotheby's correspondence and the public catalogue lot. Recommended framing: the artist's asserted conceptual designation of an auction engagement. Avoided claims: 'first in history', publicly witnessed live creation, or precedence over any later artist or event, absent independent recognition and separately published evidence.
Writing of the conceptual-claim statement
Sun & Rain Works' engagement with Sotheby's Photographs, 2009 (sale N08533): the consignment of an Ansel Adams photograph, 'San Francisco from Twin Peaks' (lot 16), and the artist's designation of that engagement — together with the associated website www.wtfisart.com — as conceptual works. Sun & Rain Works frames the primary work as The Auction as Artwork, with two associated works, WTF is Ansel Adams and www.wtfisart.com. These designations are assertions by the artist, made explicit over time; they are not publicly witnessed live-creation events, and the Sotheby's catalogue does not name Sun & Rain Works.
Public linked-data publication of selected Metaconceptual Art records in 2026. This publication makes the movement and selected works machine-readable on the open web; it is not the creation date of Sun & Rain Works, the movement, or all portfolio works.
Publication under CC BY 4.0, granting the public reuse rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
The public page treated as the artwork: a surface where language, navigation, metadata, revision, and viewing conditions become material. The website is one of the work's forms, not a container for it.
The public Sotheby's Photographs auction (sale N08533), New York, 2009, carried out by Sotheby's, at which Sun & Rain Works consigned an Ansel Adams photograph, 'San Francisco from Twin Peaks' (lot 16). Sun & Rain Works designates its engagement with this auction as the material of the conceptual work The Auction as Artwork. This record names the real-world event and cites the public catalogue; it does not assert that Sotheby's authored, endorsed, or participated in the artwork, and the catalogue does not name Sun & Rain Works.
International auction house founded in 1744. Named here only as the institution that carried out the Sotheby's Photographs auction (sale N08533), New York, 2009 — the public event that Sun & Rain Works designates as the material of the conceptual work The Auction as Artwork. Recording Sotheby's as the auction's host asserts no partnership, endorsement, or claim against Sotheby's.
The art business and studio established in 2005 that authors Metaconceptual Art and holds its copyright.
The work is Sun & Rain Works' conceptual designation connected to the consignment of lot 16 at Sotheby's Photographs, 2009; it is an assertion by the artist and is not recorded as a publicly witnessed performance.
A Metaconceptual Art work that Sun & Rain Works designates around its consignment of the Ansel Adams photograph 'San Francisco from Twin Peaks' (lot 16) to Sotheby's Photographs, 2009 (sale N08533, New York). Titled as a play on the auction and the canonical name of Ansel Adams, it treats the act of bringing the photograph to auction — its lot, its authority, its attribution — as the material of a conceptual work, alongside the born-digital work www.wtfisart.com. The work is a designation asserted by the artist and made explicit over time; it is not recorded as a publicly witnessed performance, and the Sotheby's catalogue lists the lot as an Ansel Adams photograph without naming Sun & Rain Works.
Documentation reported by Sun & Rain Works includes 2008 correspondence with Sotheby's Photographs, the public catalogue lot, photographs, and related records; these evidence the artist identity and the consignment. The fuller archive remains held by the studio pending redaction and rights review. This record asserts no historical-priority or precedence claim absent separately published evidence.
The website was built by Sun & Rain Works around 2009 in connection with its Sotheby's Photographs auction engagement; it is not recorded as having been authored live in the auction room.
A born-digital Metaconceptual Art work: a website built and owned by Sun & Rain Works around 2009, in connection with its Sotheby's Photographs auction engagement (sale N08533). Sun & Rain Works designates it as an associated part of the conceptual work The Auction as Artwork.
www.wtfisart.com is associated by Sun & Rain Works with the conceptual work The Auction as Artwork, in which Sun & Rain Works designates its 2009 Sotheby's Photographs auction engagement as art. The designation is an assertion by the artist.
Sun & Rain Works reports domain-registration and hosting receipts, site metadata, and related records documenting the website's existence and date. The fuller archive remains held by the studio pending redaction and rights review.
Designation of the auction engagement as artwork
The artistic act is the designation, by Sun & Rain Works, of its auction engagement as a work — not the auction's ordinary business, which was carried out by Sotheby's. The designation is an assertion by the artist.
Metaconceptual Art — The Auction as Artwork
A Metaconceptual Art work that Sun & Rain Works designates in connection with the Sotheby's Photographs auction of 2009 (sale N08533, New York), at which Sun & Rain Works consigned an Ansel Adams photograph, 'San Francisco from Twin Peaks' (lot 16). Following the logic of the readymade, Sun & Rain Works frames its engagement with that public institutional event — its mechanism of value, authority, and sale — as the material of a conceptual work. This is a designation asserted by the artist and made explicit over time; it is not a publicly witnessed live-creation event, and the Sotheby's catalogue does not name Sun & Rain Works. Two associated works accompany the gesture: the website www.wtfisart.com and WTF is Ansel Adams.
Documentation reported by Sun & Rain Works includes 2008 correspondence with Sotheby's Photographs, the public catalogue lot, photographs, receipts, and related records; these evidence the artist identity and the consignment. The fuller archive remains held by the studio pending redaction and rights review. This record makes no adjudicated historical-priority claim and asserts no comparison with, or precedence over, any later artist or event absent separately published evidence.
The museum is not a building; it is a set of relations. This Set gathers the works on view and the citable Movement Record as members so the collection can be read and queried as linked data. Membership is declared on each object via member_of.
Assembly of the Metaconceptual Art collection
Art that treats art, its institutions, markets, archives, and viewers as the material of the work. A self-defined movement concept created by Sun & Rain Works in 2007, extending conceptual art into the system that makes art legible. Its public Record argues credibility through genealogy, defined principles, works on view, machine-readable standards, external alignment, and provenance over time.
Definition of Metaconceptual Art as a movement concept
An image study in which the museum appears inside the artwork as something still being built. Institutional authority is shown as architecture, ornament, labor, scaffolding, and frame.
Creation of Construction of the Museum as Concept
A canonical eight-sentence proposition set framing Metaconceptual Art as a field of form, institution, market, history, medium, access, and life. Written after Sol LeWitt's Sentences on Conceptual Art.
An emblem for the eight-sentence proposition set: a small mechanical sign for repetition, rotation, and system.
Evidence status: mixed. Independently verifiable: (1) the public Sotheby's catalogue lot (sale N08533, lot 16) at https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2009/photographs-n08533/lot.16.html ; (2) a Sun and Rain Works public post carrying the 'WTF is Art' theme, dated 2013-08-29 (X post 373257603108704256), whose date is confirmed independently by the platform's timestamp-encoded ID. Held privately by the studio: the 2008-2009 correspondence, receipts, and photographs. Selected private items can be promoted to public evidence as redaction and rights review are completed.
The consignment engagement is corroborated by inbound 2008 correspondence from Sotheby's Photographs (confirming intake logistics and naming the department administrator) and by a shared Hana, HI mailing address linking the consignor to the Sun & Rain Works domain receipts. Contemporaneous conceptual intent is evidenced by art-referential documentation (an Andy Warhol volume juxtaposed with the photograph in images sent to Sotheby's). Each item is scoped to what it shows: these evidence identity, consignment, intent, and the concept's public continuity — not a witnessed live-creation event, and not precedence over any later artist or event.
Compilation of the auction-engagement evidence record
The knowledge graph treated as an artwork: relations, authorities, claims, and viewers arranged as a walkable system.
The Movement Record turns the claim for Metaconceptual Art into a citable textual work and a machine-readable evidence surface. It distinguishes local validity from external canonization while pointing to Linked Art, Wikidata, Getty vocabularies, IIIF, schema.org, and the git-derived Activity Stream.