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The Red and Black • Thursday. February 8, 1990 • 3
Art professor Bill Paul doesn’t avoid controversial issues
P«t«r Frey/The Red and Black
By SUSANNE MAYBIN
Contributing Writer
Controversial artist and Univer
sity art professor, Bill Paul has
contributed his piece “Gridlock'’ to
the AIDS Art Auction at the At
lanta College of Art.
“Gridlock” is one of seven AIDS-
related exhibits Paul has displayed
in Atlanta. The exhibit depicts the
overcrowding of AIDS patients in
U.S. hospitals.
The piece shows three manne
quins in one hospital bed with a 13-
star American flag draped over
them. Paul said the lower number
of stars represents the decrease in
population after all the people with
AIDS die.
The exhibit will run through
Feb. 10.
This isn’t the first time Paul has
dealt with a controversial subject.
He has been labeled by some of
his critics as one of the most offen
sive artists in the country.
Bill Paul contributed to a controversial exhibit in Seattle
Check on gun buyers works
“Blasphemous," “pond scum”
and “satanic” were among many
words used by one critic in the Au
gusta Chronicle and Herald to de
scribe a controversial art piece
which Paul removed from an ex
hibit in Augusta on April 27, 1989.
Paul created the piece to better
educate Augusta residents on
AIDS, prostitution and drug abuse
in their community.
In the piece, Paul said he used
an old, beat-up Bible with a nail
through it to represent the dam
aged values of today’s society. Au
gusta, which has the third-highest
population of AIDS victims in the
state, found the piece offensive, he
said.
“It was an act of oppression,”
Paul said. “Instead of closing the
exhibition the police should have
protected it.
“It was easier to get rid of it in
stead of addressing the issue of
AIDS in the Augusta community,”
he said.
Paul began to direct his art to
ward the issue of AIDS when a
friend died from the disease in
1981.
Paul said there’s a stigma at
tached to the disease and people
consider AIDS to be a social
“taboo.” He would like his art to
help people understand the dis
ease’s effects and to make AIDS a
more socially acceptable subject for
discussion.
In 1987 the Nexus Gallery in At
lanta unveiled Paul’s first AIDS-
related exhibit, “Death from a
Walk Through a Lead Forest,”
which represented the dangers of
promiscuity.
“It is my responsibility as an
artist and professor to educate my
students about AIDS. In classes I
pass out literature on AIDS that is
somewhat explicit.”
The Greg Kucera Gallerv in
Seattle invited Paul, Roger Map
plethorpe, Andres Serrano and
other artists who are considered
some of the most controversial art
ists in the country to display their
pieces.
The Kucera said the pieces in its
‘Taboo” exhibit were considered of
fensive by people in power such as
Senator Jesse Helms.
Helms is responsible for an am-
mendment which prohibits the Na
tional Endowment for the Arts
from awarding grants for material
that “degrades” the beliefs of a par
ticular religion or depicts oornog-
raphy, sadomasochism,
homoeroticism and the exploita
tion of children.
“He wonts to decide what I‘m
going to look at,” Paul said.
“Censorship is limiting artists and
depriving the public from issues
that need to be addressed.”
Brad Davis, a graduate student
who is seeking his master’s degree
under Paul, said that if issues such
as AIDS are censored or limited,
people will be misinformed.
The Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va.— Virginia’s
instant background check on gun
buyers is working better than fire
arms dealers expected, according
to a state report.
Under the program, which
began Nov. 1, nearly 11,000 gun
purchases were approved and 130,
or 1 percent, were rejected because
the buyer had a criminal record,
said state Secretary of Public
Safety Robert L. Suthard.
‘This program has operated in
the manner intended," Suthard
said in a report issued Tuesday. “If
the program hod not been imple
mented, there would be 130
GETZINGER
From page 1
in the other room, no one heard her
assailant enter through the locked
sliding glass door. Since her attack,
she has undergone two cardiovas
cular surgeries and is now back at
the University.
Her father said no one was ap
prehended and nothing more was
learned about her attacker.
In the past month, three Univer
sity students have been attacked,
two of whom were raped, according
to police reports. Ironically, a pos
sible attempted rape at Willow
Mist apartments occurred just be
fore the anniversary of Dana Get-
zinger’s attack.
She said as much information
about the assailants in the recent
attacks should be made public to
heighten awareness and to help
capture the attacker. In 1988,
there were two attacks that oc
curred before hers, and two that oc
curred shortly afterwards.
‘They never knew if it was the
same guy,” she said.
Jim Getzinger said students
should be given the crime statistics
every year because most aren’t
aware or worried about the issue
and wouldn’t ask for the informa
tion otherwise.
weapons in the hands of persons
the General Assembly deems un
qualified.”
The law, first of its kind in na
tion, requires gun dealers to call
state police on a toll-free telephone
number each time a state resident
tries to buy certain firearms. The
average time to obtain an approval
was less than 90 seconds, tne re
port said. Out-of-state buyers must
wait for approval by mail.
“Firearms dealers appear to be
generally satisfied with the pro
gram,” the report said. A survey of
the state’s gun dealers found that
65 percent said the program
worked better than they expected,
18 percent said it was worse and 17
percent said it was about what
they expected.
Gun dealers collect a $2 fee from
Virginia residents and a $5 fee
from out-of-state residents for each
police records check. But the report
said the fees have not covered the
cost of the records checks because
the number of gun purchases has
been fewer than estimated.
Pending legislation would raise
the fees to $5 and $10.
Sen. Moody E. Stallings, who
sponsored the gun law, said he has
been contacted by eight to 10 states
interested in enacting similar
laws.
Jackson aide investigated by city
The Associated Press
ATLANTA— Mayor Maynard
Jackson said Wednesday he will
ask the City Council to investi
gate the role one of his aides
played in getting a $48,000 pay
ment increase for a construction
company owned by the aide’s
friend.
Jackson called aide Aaron Tur-
peau “an honest, outstanding
public servant. I don’t believe
anything wrong has happened
here, but let the City Council in
vestigate.”
The payment approved at Tur-
peau’s urging was $10,000 more
than the builder had indicated he
would settle for and $42,000
more than recommended by the
city official who oversaw the con
struction of a fire station in south
Atlanta.
The payment increase had
been denied twice by other city
officials.
The company’s claim for more
money arose from delays tied to
problems in getting permits from
the city.
Pinkerton and Laws Co.,
owned by Bernard Porche, a
member of Jackson’s transition
team, built the fire station under
a $985,000 contract beginning in
April 1988. The station was $94,-
000 over budget.
Turpeau, administrative serv
ices commissioner and Jackson’s
nominee for chief of staff, ordered
the payment after failing to get
subordinates to sign the payment
order, The Atlanta Journal-Con
stitution reported Wednesday.
Turpeau admitted his inter
vention was unusual but said it
was not improper because the
construction company had been
seeking additional money for
more than a year.
“Without honest information,
how can you begin to solve that
problem or do anything about it?”
he said.
Lt. Lisa Boone of the University
Crime Prevention Bureau said re
ports of crime statistics on campus
are first given to the Georgia
Crime Information Center, which
sends them to the FBI.
‘The University’s crime statis
tics are available for anyone who
would like to see them," Boone
said. “It’s important to let people
know that this is happening on our
campus.
“We’d only give it to people
who’d ask for it, but we’d be more
than happy to show anyone,” she
said.
University Police Chief Chuck
Horton brings copies of crime sta
tistical sheets to student orienta
tions, she said.
The Getzingers are working on
getting the Clery Bill passed into
law on the federal level. Getzinger
said that they were having trouble
in other than Georgia, so they are
now going through the Florida
Trial Attornies Association.
Through the association, he said
they would get the people they
needed for sponsorship in the re
spective states. With wrong
sponsorship, the bill would die by a
process he called ‘loving it to
death,” Getzinger said.
By “loving it to death,” a bill
could be recommended for im
provement, or put into a subcom
mittee, and by the time the bill is
ready, the legislature could have
“expired and closed shop,” he said.
Dana Getzinger appeared on a
special about campus crime on
local Florida television in early
February.
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