It’s a universally acknowledged fact that waiting rooms can be excruciatingly boring.
With only old issues of Reader’s Digest and a few parenting magazines to thumb through, there’s not much else to do but linger in anticipation and anxiously listen for your name to be mispronounced.
We’re all familiar with the stilted atmosphere of clinical waiting rooms, but do you ever wonder what a purgatory waiting room would be like?
Well now you don’t have to. To glimpse a preview of what the liminal space between heaven and hell is like, check out the newest exhibition space in the art department, the Hi/Lo Gallery aka the Humanities Building elevator, currently housing “Elevator to Eternity.”
The gallery, created by drawing student Kelly Johannsen, started out as a class project. Johannsen’s assignment was to creatively use and transform a public space. After seeing her artistic overhaul, the art department decided to make it a permanent gallery space to celebrate creativity and discourage vandalism.
“The whole point of the piece was to be humorous and have people engaged in the work itself,” Johannsen said. “You have to go into the elevator and you have to participate if you want to travel floors.”
Elevator riders have the chance to be the deciders of their own eternal fate choosing by floor between, “Heaven,” “Hades,” “Reincarnation as snail” and “Reincarnation as rock star.”
“I wanted to something that was closer to hell and closer to heaven, I guess,” Johannsen said, describing the snail versus rock star choice she gave elevator commuters. “In between, if you’re going to be making those transitions I thought of something you wouldn’t necessarily want to be reincarnated as and what’s something you would want to be reincarnated as.”
In true waiting room style, there’s literature available to “read” as you wait to arrive at your chosen destination. With book titles like, “Does the Devil Wear Prada”? “Limbo: It’s not Just a Party Game” and “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide to Hell,” it’s hard not to take pause at the detailed hilarity.
“I enjoy the humor in every form. I like to make people smile and I like to laugh a lot as well,” Johannsen said. “As far as humorous art goes, I don’t think art has to be super serious, which is kind of this perception people have about it… that you’re supposed to be wearing a beret or something.”
In total, Johannsen said the installation took her about 20 hours constructing pieces outside the elevator and about 10 hours installing the components and painting the interior. When you step into the “waiting room” you’re greeted with a “Welcome to Purgatory: A short stop on your way to eternity” cross-stitch, a feature of the exhibit that’s nostalgic of the cutesy familiarity you might find in your grandma’s basement. The walls are painted what Johannsen dubs “a sickly green” and stenciled birds (a wall pattern she said her mom used in the early 90s) are strategically dispersed.
Because she was displaying art in a public space, Johannsen had to make sure all of the elements she was incorporating into the elevator wouldn’t interfere with its functionality and safety – meaning nothing could be flammable or cause any handicaps for users.
These safety restrictions created a few obstacles for Johannsen, though. Because she was prohibited from using paper, canvas or wood, she was required to use vinyl, plastic, metal and linoleum – materials she said were hard to track down, but worth the extra effort.
“As a whole experience if you really want people to enjoy something you’ve got to put a lot of work into it,” Johannsen said.
As pointed out by Johannsen on her blog, there is one thing absent from her offbeat masterpiece: the soothing, non-descript instrumental music so essential to the traditional elevator experience.
“Really I just want [people] to be a little bit happier, or just have a little more engagement with their daily lives,” Johannsen said. “Usually when you walk down the street you look down at the ground and you don’t pay attention to the world around you, and this is just kind of something different.”
So take a deep breath and indulge in the chance to step into a little fantasy while you’re still among the mortals. Don’t worry, back issues of Reader’s Digest are nowhere in sight.
The “Elevator to Eternity” exhibition will be on display in the Hi/Lo Gallery indefinitely. The elevator is located in the east entrance of the Humanities building.
Correction: Due to an editing error, the original copy of this article said the exhibit name was “Purgatory Waiting Room.” The correct exhibit name is “Elevator to Eternity.” We regret the error.
