TODT Artist Collective

On October 18^th, I saw the TODT Artist Collective with my visual arts class. It was located in Gallery249 at the College Park Center. The exhibit was a collaboration of the work of three anonymous artists. To be honest, I did not know what to make of the exhibit. On one hand, I would say that I disliked it completely, but on the other, I would have to say that the artists achieved their purpose. This is because so many of the art pieces were blatantly disgusting and I could not seem to get past that aspect; however, it was clear that the artists intended to do this, so they were successful in carrying out what they wanted to. I did not hate all of the pieces by any means because they forced me to look at the world with a new perspective, which I always appreciate even if I do not agree what that viewpoint entails. 

            Some of the pieces included rather disturbing works of art. Something that that I always cannot stand, in general, is when artists or filmmakers use some sort of child-related object and make it demonic. I do not like when scary movies portray possessed children or use children’s lullabies. Similar to this, I was disturbed when one of the art pieces was a teddy bear, a child’s stuffed animal, with realistic looking organs shown on the outside. The animal was torn up with its fluff strewn all over the place and these organs sewed to the surface. It was hard to get away from pieces such as this one in that exhibit. One of the pieces was a small box, and when I peered closer to see what was inside, I found, not to my delight, human teeth. I am all for supporting the arts, but this piece did nothing but repulse me.  I am sure the artist had his or hers own purpose in mind and that that purpose translated to some people, but for me personally, it was lost. Some other pieces included tongues, and other unattractive parts of the human body. All of these pieces did not intrigue me. All I wanted to do was get away from them. There were a couple of 3D installation pieces that were interesting, but other than that I did not find the exhibit pleasurable. However, as I said before, art is not always supposed to be a pleasant experience; often its purpose is to make the viewers question their current view of life. Sometimes art is supposed to make people uncomfortable, because our most memorable experiences are those outside our comfort zone. I am always open to new art experiences that contain works I am not used to seeing, and I am glad I got to see this exhibit. That being said, I also would not go back or recommend this to a friend unless they specifically enjoyed creepy art in general. For example, I would recommend this to someone who loves scary movies, Alfred Hitchcock stories, and Tim Burton films. Perhaps not someone who is obsessed with romantic comedies and Disney princesses.