The selfie-averse among us will find much to love about the harrowing 35-second clip above. The video shows a woman attempting to capture the perfect selfie at the 14th Factory exhibition space in Los Angeles, only to completely blow it by ruining approximately $200,000 worth of art.
The incident occurred a few weeks back at the "multimedia art experience" created by artist Simon Birch and a team of 20 collaborators, LAist reported Friday. The particular installation being ravaged—Hypercaine—features contributions from Birch, Jacob Blitzer, Gloria Yu, and Gabriel Chan.
Some reports have questioned the legitimacy of the incident, pondering its potential as a "stunt." The Guardian, for example, ran the phrase "but was it a stunt?" in their headline and noted that "some have thrown doubt" on the selfie disaster as a stunt orchestrated by the artists.
14th Factory spokesperson Jocelyn Ingram pushed back against such speculation in a statement to LAist Friday. "The truth is, the event did happen and it was caught on our security camera," Ingram said. "Now that it got online, we would rather direct the sudden attention away from the unfortunate event and to the art in The 14th Factory space and the artists behind them."
Ingram also confirmed the approximate cost of damage as $200,000. A total of three pieces were damaged permanently, while multiple others suffered damage of "varying" seriousness.
At any rate, the response has varied from blaming the selfie-taker to blaming the location of the exhibition. Peruse a selection of that below.
