Disturbance

“Disturbance,” Bob Paris’ five-part video installation now appearing at the Anderson Gallery, is just that: disturbing.

The kinetic imaging teacher’s work features television programs and news footage videotaped in San Francisco from April 29 to May 2, 1992 – the time frame of the Los Angeles riots that occurred immediately following the verdict from the March 3, 1991, Rodney King beating.

“Sometime in the mid ’90s, I came across many VHS tapes of something from a few years back. It turns out I have no memory of it but during the L.A. riots I had taped some of the TV coverage,” Paris said. “I was never really thinking of doing anything with it.”

What made the biggest impression on Paris was that he did not remember how large-scale the event had been.

“It was almost as if I was looking at them for the first time,” Paris said. “A lot of the images are so powerful and so sad, and I was struck by how I had forgotten about it.”

Though the exhibit focuses on everything from George H.W. Bush’s comments on the riots to TV commercials that appeared during that time frame, one part of the footage struck a chord in Paris.

“I was particularly struck by the public speech by King that day,” he said. “King is just such a masterful screw-up. He’s always been in trouble with the law. He’s not necessarily a role model. I kind of saw him that day as a kind of tragic figure. I just found him ultimately wildly eloquent.”

Since King’s stumbling speech made such an impression on him, the main three-screen exhibit focuses for a minute or so on this event, breaking up the distorted, wobbly images that dominate the film.

Glen “Rodney” King was born April 2, 1965, in Sacramento, Ca. – four months, nine days and 385 miles from the Watts riots in L.A.

The Watts riots began when a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer pulled over Marquette Frye for driving erratically – the same reason Rodney King was pulled over 26 years later. The 1965 stop resulted in arrests which triggered a riot that lasted six days.

Though the exhibit focuses on the L.A. riots, it does have a more overlying theme of the role TV plays in history and our lives.

“We don’t have any history anymore. TV plays a part in this,” Paris said. “Everything is about what’s happening now and not what happened before. Things just loop. They repeat.”

Amy Moorefield, assistant professor, assistant director and curator of collections for the Anderson Gallery, said the gallery is always looking for innovative exhibitions to display.

“I was completely blown away by the piece and worked with him and watched it grow into a five-part installation over a two-year process,” she said.

Moorefield also liked the piece for its portrayal of how the media affects our lives.

“I think one of my first impressions after I viewed Bob Paris’ work for the first time was that it was a very telling and moving piece for me, really conveying how the media in essence fragments our view of current events and human tragedy and how difficult it is to actually escape from that onslaught of media when human tragedy like this occurs.”

Madison Fairburn, a sophomore art education major, read about the exhibit online before going to see it.

“I thought it was really well done,” Fairburn said. “It was good to have prior knowledge to what it was going to be about as far as it being a recording of the riots in ’92 and knowing it was a video of that being shown.”

Fairburn did mention that she didn’t know the proper order to view the exhibit in.

“I was a little confused at first because of the main video,” she said. “Unless you know to go there first, the other videos kind of look choppy but the main video puts it all together.”

Even though there was some confusion, Fairburn enjoyed the exhibit.

“Disturbance” Video Installations by Bob Paris will be at the Anderson Gallery
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