My false sense of security

     “My False Sense of Security” was a direct response to the 45th POTUS’s attack on immigration and his promise to build a wall on the Mexican/American border. The piece was composed of two artworks tied together by a performance. The first part of the piece, “Delt with,” was displayed during the first hour of the show. It consisted of a fleece blanket that featured the image of the 45th president, taken from the cover of Time magazine’s August 31st, 2015’s issue, photographed by Martin Schoeller. I chose to utilize the fleece as my canvas due to the irony it held; while blankets provide comfort and warmth, the image printed on the blanket did not. The original text from the magazine cover was altered from saying “Deal with it” to “Dealt with”, foreshadowing the performance later in the evening.

        Around an hour after the opening, the performance of "My False Sense of Security" took place. For 20 minutes, Javier Vargas, of Mexican descent, built a wall out of cinder blocks and mortar. The wall covered the fleece blanket beneath the 45th president's toupee, with its height deliberately chosen to hide the smug grin without obscuring the figure's identity. As the night went on, people gathered around the wall, drinking and smoking in celebration of the imagined fall of a tyrant.

  “My False Sense of Security” explores the concept of security and how the perception of safety is often reinforced by physical or political measures such as surveillance cameras, walls, and military presence. I believe this sense of safety is an illusion, and that building a wall in hopes of preventing crime is no more effective than creating an artwork in response to ignorance.