About three weeks ago I had a chance to visit Whitney Museum of America Art. The exhibition was dedicated to a very unique and in a way weird art of Andy Warhol. There were many different paintings, pictures, caricatures and abstract drawing on display at the museum. The whole Andy Warhol exhibition occupied three floors of the museum. The only things that I felt a genuine connection with were many different photos and color swapped pictures. Than one that I really liked was a picture of Marlon Brando in his leather jacket and a bike from the movie “The Wild One”. And to be completely honest, many film that were shown on the exhibition felt bizarre. I could not concentrate on one particular film because there were so many and all of them were strange.

However, the one that strikes my memory the most is shown on a third floor and screen shows Andy Warhol eating a burger. As I stood there watching I was thinking about the thought process behind this film and I might be wrong but there was nothing special about that piece. People around me were fascinated with this piece but I kind of was not.  After that I watched some other short film which were shown on small old TVs with a dedicated headset for someone who would want to listen. These film were also very odd in a way. One showed a lady cleaning her room, the other showed two people staring and arguing with each other. I felt as if I was watching aliens on screen who try to replicate people’s behavior and interact with each other. Maybe that was the whole point after all to create a feeling of alienation to a  viewers or it might be that I did not understand something. It is hard to tell because one of my friends was definitely interested and very invested in all the art pieces. When I asked her to explain it to me, she could clearly deliver the message though.

At the end of the day,  the thing that I took away from this is that we live in a world which is too contemporary in a way that every media that we consume now is commercialized. Everything is picked out very carefully. If it is a car then it is the most luxurious car that you can find. If it is a model then it is the most stunning model on screen. If it is a sunset on a beach then it is the most breathtaking and colorful sunset. And then seeing something as simple and weird as a man sitting in a white room eating a burger, it simply does not spark the same interest and attention to it. The only thing that it does spark is a feeling of awkwardness.