The Art Of Self Defense

Exhibit Presents Things That Keep You Safe As Works Of Art

(CBS)  If you haven't noticed, it's dangerous out there. And, CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports, protecting yourself has become something of an art form.

At New York's Museum of Modern Art, Paola Antonelli has accumulated 300 objects for an exhibit called, simply, "safe."

It's the kind of stuff any stylish paranoid survivalist would kill for. Gas masks, surveillance cameras and butterfly-shaped barbed wire. After terrorist attacks and wars and hurricanes and earthquakes, this exhibit is sadly topical, oddly beautiful and fully functional.

One piece is a bulletproof brooch in the shape of a rose, designed by artist Tobias Wong. Could it really stop a bullet?

"Each petal is really a layer of protection," Wong explains. "There's more layers in the rose than there are in a bulletproof vest."

Wong's brooch is displayed right next to his bulletproof duvet. Among the items in the exhibit, it highlights one aspiration we all have in common.

Says Antonelli: "Design is about human needs, and if you think about human needs, being safe is one of the very, very basics."

So is this exhibit a sign of the times? Could it draw a crowd some other time?

Antonelli answers, "Give me an example of an easier, simpler time."

But wouldn't it be nice if these things weren't in a museum of modern art and could only be found in a museum of history.