Nooneissafe

In "Nooneissafe," artist Vahap Avşar installed a decimated NYPD police car in a gallery space. The car simulated an imaginary scenario in which a bomb had exploded at the New York Police Department. The work was created in reference to the safety issues played out post 9/11. According to Avşar's website, "An NYPD car is a readily recognizable image for all those who live in New York City through real-life experience, and for people in and outside of New York through everyday media outlets such as the newspaper and television. On the other hand, while a car bomb explosion is just as recognizable as imagery it is familiar mostly just through the media, since we can assume that most of New York’s city population has never experienced such an event in person. The juxtaposition of the two imageries is the formal manifestation of Avşar’s intention to play on the viewer’s assumptions about pop news bits and make her aware of the process of how she receives these bits. This juxtaposition does indeed feel recognizable and strike us as probable even though in reality the likelihood of ever coming across an actually bomb-exploded NYPD car is small.