Uncomfortably Hypnotic
Ron Johnson
I find it rare to encounter exhibitions that elicit an uneasy or anxious feeling. "Disturbance" (Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA), a video installation by Bob Paris, consisting of five separate but connected works, does just this, while producing an environment that is both welcoming and unsettling.
The main work titled, Disturbance: 22 Minutes of Television images from April 29 — May 2, 1992, consists of images recorded from television during the 1992 LA riots. Paris describes his footage as randomly recorded over a two-day period. The recorded clips are displayed on three separate, large flat-screen televisions. The three screens should be viewed simultaneously and from beginning to end as they are interconnected. As Paris says, "the narrative unfolding much like a documentary film in multiple windows."
The imagery on the three screens includes footage of the riots, news broadcasts and commercials. It is an odd, somewhat surreal mix of troubling images, such as trucker Reginald Denny being beaten, combined with commercials promoting the safety features in a new SUV. The unintentional montage, a perplexing amalgamate of pop culture being thrust into real world tragedy make Paris’s intentional acts even more revealing.
Paris uses an analog video synthesizer to distort and decolorize the original image. Reducing the image to black and white lends a different significance to the piece and in some way intensifies the pictures being broadcast. The black and white transformed images are also now placed in a different historical time and further distance the viewer from the original context. The "waves" created in the distortion prove an alluring hook with its slow plodding movement of ribbon-like bands moving down the screen. The hypnotic pendulum that keeps eyes attached to the television, seducing viewers.
I have visited the Anderson Gallery on many occasions but this time I was struck by the space and how it was transformed. The entire gallery was painted in what appeared to be a flat, matte charcoal gray. The environment had a low light atmosphere, like a movie theater before the movie. Visually it was a calming sensation initially, but once engaged with the images it became cold and claustrophobic.
What is so wonderfully conscious in Paris’s work is the significance in the slowing-down process. The environment and distortions all lend to a viewers computing of the work in a deliberate manner. I compared the experience to being in the desert, tired and thirsty, maybe disoriented. Ahead in the sun-drenched distance appears a mirage. It slowly shimmers as the heat waves bend the view. It is attractive. There is a struggle to get to this non-existent place, but this destination can never be reached. "Disturbance," without warning, reveals we are already in the mirage. And in the slow trance-like movements, ironically we can’t get out. We are "forced" to engage "Disturbance" in all of its uncomfortable, hypnotic glory.
