I stepped into the long room with my friend. We’re here to observe and analyze this particular art exhibit. There are two rows of televisions with a bouquet of flowers placed on little altars right beneath each television screen. My friend and I take our seats on individual little padded cushions on the floor of the mezzanine. The overhead lights all turn off and we’re left looking down towards the TVs and flowers. At first, the TV screens all show the black and white static screen and then they all turn on to different shows, commercials, and movies and the buzz of all the different sounds and words clash together jarringly.
The most bizarre thing begins to happen.
The bouquets of flowers set on the dais beneath each screen begins to rot and fade, and much like the phoenix, it begins to grow young and fresh again. The juxtaposition between the generic TV commercial and the lush, gorgeous bouquets of flowers that are continuously blooming, fading, rotting and blooming anew is at once hypnotizing and disturbing. I’m taken aback, because it just doesn’t make sense. I glance around at the others situated around me and see that everyone is having the same reaction to the flowers and their unnatural cycle. The TVs go back to static and then the creator of this art presentation steps into the center of the room. She looks up at the observers and says, “Can you see the flowers too?”
Every single one of us nods, very slowly.
All the TVs shut off at once and the room is plunged into absolute darkness.
