Convention Fury
INV-2701sculpture
Date
1968
Medium
Hand-painted Lucite
Dimensions
13.1 × 12.1 × 10.2 cm (5 1/8 × 4 3/4 × 4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Oscar L. Gerber Memorial Endowment
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?
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