Christenberry Exhibit

As I entered the Christenberry exhibit “Site/Possession,” I was unsure of what the exhibit was really about. The guard at the front of the museum very solemnly asks for me to leave my belongings at the front desk. I am told that the narrator will lead me through the controversial “Klan Room Tableau.”
A thick red curtain and two security guards stand between me and the exhibit. The narrator explains to me that what I am about to see could produce strong emotions due to the graphic nature of what I am waiting for her to stop talking about so I can see.
Small coffins. Sketches of hooded figures. Noose-strung Klansmen dolls dripping with candle wax. Robed men in a jail cell.
Nothing like the graphic scenes and violent scenarios that were racing through my mind before stepping behind that curtain.
With all of the hype and seeming “controversy” surrounding the exhibit, I think some of the power of the exhibit was lost. The exhibit was intended to create an atmosphere of fear and loathing of the vile Klan. I was more afraid on the other side of the curtain. Had I viewed Christenberry’s work with no expectation or preconceived notion of what it was going to be like, I may have been more shocked and absorbed the message of the exhibit to a fuller extent. I left wondering why I was not trusted to carry my own purse with me or why a narrator talked her way through my entire experience of the work, forming opinions and trying to simulate emotion for me.
I understand that there has been some controversy over the nature of the exhibit, some people not understanding Christenberry’s display of the Klan. Some even want the exhibit down. But I have to wonder. If the museum had let the public form it’s own opinion on the extent of the controversial nature of the exhibit, would some members of the public still find that the exhibit was so controversial?