The Trojan Horse Manifesto: The Role of Aesthetics

Art is a vehicle, but not all vehicles announce their destination. In a world saturated with images, aestheticization becomes a necessary Trojan horse — a beautifully crafted shell that gains entry into the audience’s minds. The surface seduces; the message infiltrates. To reject aesthetic appeal outright is to abandon the possibility of engagement. The artist must be cunning, understand the terrain, and wield beauty not as an end but as a means.
Every artwork is an onion. The outermost layer — the sheen, the composition, the digestible form — is what first meets the eye. It is the invitation, the accessible veneer, that allows the work to circulate in a world conditioned to consume the surface. Beyond that, one can inject themselves into what they make. How many layers are peeled back depends on the viewer. Some will stop at first; others will continue, willingly or unknowingly, towards the core.
The work must function at multiple levels simultaneously. It must offer something at first glance — pleasure, intrigue, curiosity — but reward those who linger. Subtext must haunt the surface, resisting immediate revelation. The artist must accept that not every viewer will arrive at the core, but those who do will find something that was never visible from the outside.

In an era where media distorts and flattens, where the aestheticized dominates perception, to reject spectacle is to forfeit influence. The artist must use the mechanisms of the hyperreal against themselves, injecting meaning into the aesthetic engine of attention. Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra and simulation states that representation no longer reflects reality but acts as semiotics, generating a self-contained world of images and creating a state of hyperreality. Media and consumer culture are the culprits of the construction of simulations that erase distinctions between the real and the artificial. The glossy, sleek, and seductive are tools, not betrayals. We must embed critique within the spectacle, leveraging its reach while subverting its intent.
Aesthetic appeal draws the audience in, but the deeper layers demand participation. The work is not forced but invited. It acknowledges that understanding is not imposed but arrived at. The responsibility of meaning is shared: The artist constructs the layers, and the audience determines how far they are willing to go. Thus, the work remains open-ended, dynamic, and alive in its reception.
A Trojan horse can be mistaken for a gift. The risk of aestheticization is that the surface becomes the only engagement point, and the layers remain unpeeled. But this is a necessary risk. The alternative — creating work that refuses entry and demands effort without offering enticement — is to preach to the already converted and speak in a language that refuses to be heard. To create today is to operate within a battlefield of images, where attention is the currency and perception is the terrain. The artist must be both a maker and a strategist. Art is not passive. It does not simply exist; it infiltrates, unsettles, and reveals. When employed with intention, aestheticized work is not a surrender to the spectacle but a subversion of it.
The layers we construct, the invitations we extend, the meanings we embed — these are not neutral acts. The Trojan horse is not empty; it is filled with intent. To wield aestheticization as a strategy is to recognize the power of images, the stakes of representation, and the necessity of craft in a world that consumes without questioning.