PITTSBURGH—After being inadvertently trapped in the Carnegie Museum of Art following closing time Thursday, local man Simon Oresick, 57, remarked to himself that art and life do seem, at times, to be inextricably linked to one another in a mutually imitative relationship. “It is curious to note the way in which art reflects the vagaries of existence and the human condition, just as existence itself often seems to directly echo or reflect the motifs expressed in art,” pondered the frantic, nearly hysterical man as he bounded down a service stairwell and repeatedly threw his weight against a door labeled “street exit.” “For instance, is it I who am trapped in this museum, or the pieces of art that currently surround me? Or both? And who is the original author of this entrapment: the work of art, or the person who views said work of art?” At press time, the distraught, captive Oresick was attempting to jimmy open a stairwell window with his car keys while contemplating the twin theories of both art as a form of escape and escape as a form of art.

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