Convention Fury

Inspired by the anti–Vietnam War protests and subsequent police riots that erupted outside the Chicago Democratic National Convention in 1968, Idelle Weber’s Convention Fury implicates the viewer as a witness to police brutality. The transparent plastic cube, painted by hand, lets different scenes come to the foreground depending on which side is viewed. From one angle, a protestor is arrested while demonstrators march in the background, and from another, a police officer raises his baton as others look on. The act of watching is dynamic throughout the piece: politicians watch police, police watch protesters, and the viewer watches the scene unfold. By confronting issues of responsibility and voyeurism, Weber’s Convention Fury urges viewers to consider two questions: Who stands on the sidelines and why?