PAUL PFEIFFER, RACE RIOT, 2001
Digital video loop, camcorder, wood, glass linen
“There are interesting moments when the player happens to be faced away from the camera. They zoom in on the back of the head, and it seems like a very interesting contradiction—that in a way this is the money shot. It’s the shot that the players are waiting for when they take center stage after they’ve done something good or something bad. But the contradiction is the extreme close-up on the personality of somebody who happens to be turned away from the camera.” (Paul Pfeiffer quoted in the PBS interview, Art 21)
In Race Riot, Paul Pfeiffer memorializes the 1996 NBA Championship in which the Chicago Bulls win the tournament. The basic image is a clip from the final victory—the moment in which Michael Jordan falls to the floor, back to the camera, hugging the ball as his teammates gather around him. After winning three straight NBA titles from the 1991 to 1993, Michael Jordan retired. After he returned to the Bulls in 1995, the team won three more NBA Championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998. In Race Riot, Pfeiffer is celebrating this momentous event. The artist manipulates the original footage captured through ardent editing. Subjecting the viewer to his selected clips, Pfeiffer draws upon the real meaning behind the championship itself: the victory cup, the camaraderie, and the final release of expression the athletes convey. By placing the entire object in a glass vitrine lined with cloth, Pfeiffer further suggests this act of veneration to the championship itself. - Phillips