"(In)security" Art Assesses 9/11's Impact

Michele Pred with her piece, Fear Culture 2 (photo courtesy of Art Animal).

Jo Farb Hernandez, Director of the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery and a Professor of Department of Art and Art History who specializes in outsider art, has brought to campus an artist with a unique perspective on the World Trade Center attacks.

“If anthropologists were to assess items representing the aftermath of September 11, 2001, they might include the piles of random materials left behind at airport security checkpoints across the country,” writes blogger Elizabeth Coleman.

“For over 12 years, conceptual installation artist Michele Pred has been an anthropologist of sorts, gathering items like lighters, matchbooks, sewing scissors and pocket knives that were confiscated at the security checkpoints at San Francisco International Airport.”

In her newest exhibit, “(In)security,” on display at the Thompson Gallery through Dec. 14, “Pred uses these items to visually represent how our lives have been impacted in unexpected ways since 9/11 … By placing the confiscated items together in recognizable shapes such as a heart or the red, white and blue of the American flag, Pred brings new meaning to the material.” Read more from the Art Animal blog.