As one would find his or her respective to have been quite, for lack of a better term, “blah,” the Martin Honert exhibition at the Matthew Marks Gallery (of the Chelsea area of New York City) brought that perspective to life in the form of three pieces.

Above, English Teacher, Honert’s 2010 work, greeted us as we ventured into the gallery. My initial reaction was that it was really creepy, but as I looked closer, and began to feel the empty stare of the “english teacher,” I felt a sort of instant connection with the piece. The way that an authority figure of such seemingly miniscule stature can instill a sense of fear into any person they come in contact with, over the years. As a student, myself, I recognized the point of Honert’s work, here, instantly: the grey “blur” of one’s childhood memories can be blocked by frightening experiences, such as the first time a teacher yells at you, etc.

In Honert’s effort to reiterate this message, the piece of the next room,

Dormitory, Model 1:5, explored the blandness of a dormitory room, like the ones at a university or a boarding school. On Honert’s tangent of a sort-of “childhood grayscale” ironically felt more bland with the blue and yellow lighting scheme of the piece, highlighting the traditional two-sided “yes-or-no,” “right-or-wrong” type of childhood. Fun fact: One of the people viewing Dormitory was within earshot and I heard them say, “Wow, this looks like my dormitory from boarding school, what a boring time that was… yes, Sharon, I actually went to boarding school.”

The final piece in the gallery was in the third and final room.

Tentatively called Group of Teachers, this piece brought the same eerie feeling of which was received upon first glance of English Teacher: the kind of feeling where you are scared, but you don’t know what you are afraid of, likely due to the installation of fear from authority figures. I look at these “teachers” and automatically feel guilty about something I didn’t do…