DENVER – Some of us find it hard, at times, to share our darkest secrets, our deepest pain and our biggest worries with those closest to us, opting instead for the comfort that a stranger’s ear provides.
It is with this need in mind that British artist Stuart Semple is exploring the social benefits of trusting people outside our social circle; all you have to do is drop your emotional baggage within the great hall of Denver’s Union Station.
The audience-led installation, on display through June 10, explores the way in which people share their burdens with others – overcoming anxiety and creeping isolation in the process.
Emotional Baggage Drop (hello stranger) resembles a luggage drop station and the public is invited to confidentially share their burdens with a stranger. That stranger then listens to and accepts the other’s emotional baggage.
“By bringing strangers together, instigating intimacy, and asking participants to share personal hardships, this artwork endeavors to create trustful human interactions,” a short snippet of the exhibition states.
The art installation is part of Happy City: Art for the People, a six-week, citywide art “intervention” formed by Semple with the purpose of “breaking down personal, emotional, and social barriers while nurturing individual and collective well-being.”
Emotional Baggage Drop (hello stranger) is open to the public Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. If you’d like to go during the weekend, you can check it out Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.