Installation View

2011, Wisconsin Academy
Madison, WI
wood, projection, paint

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The Wisconsin Academy exhibition reflects Klassen’s interest in the banality of the aesthetics of safety. Post 9/11, our country has been dealing with, and at times obsessed with, issues of protection and safety resulting in a collective measure of fear. This fear of terrorism and feeling of precarious existence may be more of a political construct than an individual reality. Regardless of the objective or subjective nature of this fear, people need words and ideas to pacify their sense of stability and protection. There is perhaps some disconnect between the reality of being protected and fears of mortality. In a very real way we are protected by the most banal elements in our world around us. Although these elements don’t protect us from terrorism they do protect us from things that are more palpable.