WHAT, ME WORRIED? at Galerie Trapp
Duration: Dec. 16–Mar. 17, 2023
Galerie Trapp, Salzburg, AT
--
What, Me Worried is a play on MAD mascot Alfred E. Newman’s irreverent motto, “What, me worry?” At the time of conception of the satirical magazine and well into the height of its popular reach, the Cold War and the threat of nuclear fallout was ever-present in people’s minds. During this tense period, the publication provided readers with some comic reprieve from the sustained security threats that existed.
Once more we find ourselves in a time in which a confluence of contemporary crises has had profound effects on the ways we live our lives. They have taught us not to take our relative comfort as citizens of the developed world for granted and amplified the inequities present all around us from the local to the global level.
The works in this series touch on the multifarious facets of our shared experience: from feeling overwhelmed by news events to developing a new conciseness for the mechanisms of what make society function, and the ways in which they can be improved for the future. While the work does not claim to present concrete solutions to the most pressing issues we face, they do provide the viewer with observations and meditations based on our common reality; and in doing so, even finds grace, solace, and humor in what have been trying times.