Safety?

Last Saturday, I went to visit “Safety First.” When I first heard the name of this exhibition, I knew it had to do with safety and I was curious as to how art could express this theme of safety. When I entered the building, I was really scared and I didn’t want to go forward. Not only was the passageway dark, but there were curtains obstructing my path. I didn’t know what to expect as I proceeded further along. I noticed that there were displays along the way that frightened me even more. I gathered up my courage and continued on walking and picking away at the curtains. After I finished my journey and arrived in the gallery, I felt a huge relief knowing that walk was over. Although the gallery was still dark and there was weird music playing around me, I was much calmer now since I could see the other visitors and workers. It was nice knowing that other people were in the same place and experiencing the same things as I was; it was a sense of security. I’m not sure whether or not the feelings I had were related to the theme of this exhibition.

When I saw the art works on display, I wasn’t really able to understand what these pieces were trying to express. I think the artist tried to convey feelings of anxiety and fear through the various use of lights and pictures. However, I still don’t understand what these works have to do with the issue of safety. I never even had the feeling of safeness while looking at his art. All I thought of was how creepy these exhibits were and I felt that anybody could have just put a few scary things on display and call it art. I did not think that the art shown here took too much creativity to come up with especially the flashing signs that didn’t mean much to me.