The Westchester Elevator

The freakishly small elevator in my building has been notorious for having some of the most vulgar and ridiculous graffiti covering its walls. Every once in a while, when the realtor has recieved enough complaints about the horrific condition of the elevator and the building, they'll paint it. What's fun about when the elevator gets painted, is the anticipation of who or what will be written first. And to the all the tenants surprise, the first thing to be found in the elevator was this:


A beautiful portrait of an African woman. As much as I loved this portrait, I was nervous about what would be done to it, how some idiot would deface it or what would be written about it on the walls of the elevator. The mysterious tenant who supplied the image, also put up a piece of paper advising people to write on that, rather then the elevator walls. In a few hours, it was filled with comments, many of them, not surprisingly, directed towards the image on the wall.

It makes me wonder what would have been said if the image was not of an African woman, but of a white woman. If someone were to take the current image down and replace it with one of a white woman, I could see some comments saying things like, "that's better!" or "Thank God!" or something to that extent. But if the original image put up was of a white woman, I can guarantee there would not be any comments about the color of her skin. If that were the case, it would only showcase the "normalcy" associated with being white, that things to note about the image would probably be directed toward something she was wearing, the color of her hair, etc.
Now I'm interested in turning my elevator into somewhat of an experimental space - perhaps also adding a few images and seeing what would be said about them. It would be the ultimate critique for any work - anonymous comments left by people who probably care very little about what's being done or what they say.

The elevator has progressed -