The Neolithic Fart

Accession

FA.001

Medium

Barley, shellfish, smoke

Duration

Approximately four seconds

Provenance

Undocumented until the present exhibition

The oldest work in the collection, and the only one produced in a society that had not yet invented the concept of an audience. Nobody laughed. Nobody apologised. Nobody left the room, because the room was the entire building and it was raining. You are the original article: unembarrassed, unhurried, and entirely unaware that any of this would later become complicated.