• Newsfeed
  • viral

Man’s Response to Wife Who Wants Him to Stop Leaving Garbage Around Is a Work of Art

2 minute read

Usually, when a significant other leaves a note on the kitchen counter, it’s something romantic. But this man’s “artwork” was actually just a piece of garbage.

Lizzie Swann shared a photo of her husband’s note on Tuesday, writing that she asked him to stop leaving “empty wrappers” on the counters in their kitchen. Her husband responded thoughtfully to her request.

The plastic snack wrapper was left beside a placard fit with everything from medium — “oatcake wrapper on marble” — to the title, year and artist. (‘Provocation,’ the artist, Tomas McAuley, named his work.)

“Part of the famed ‘Annoyes’ school of visual artists, McAuley’s works have long sought to shock and to disturb, but ultimately to deepen our collective understanding of the human condition,” he wrote to his wife. “This work probes the intersectional boundaries of art to question,” he said, going on to outline how he can use “everyday materials” in demonstrating “the fundamental elision of the artistic and the human.”

Though conventionally, it’s best to find common ground with your spouse, this husband’s gag earned thousands of likes and retweets on Twitter. It seems this creative troublemaker turned their marital discord into a work of art after all.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Rachel E. Greenspan at rachel.greenspan@time.com