THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Courthouse Collage : Sidewalk Gallery of Art, Commerce and Debate Inspires Exhibit

Outside the courthouse, amid the vendors hawking “Cut the Juice Loose” T-shirts, the swarms of reporters and cameras and the crowds, there is beauty.

At least that’s what Cal State Northridge art history professor Kenon Breazeale sees when she views the hubbub surrounding the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Breazeale feels so strongly about the scene that she is putting together an exhibit, to be shown in mid-March.

The working title for the show is “On the Courthouse Steps: Art, Spectacle and Commerce at the Simpson Trial,” said Breazeale, who wants the exhibit to not only showcase works of art but also put them in the context of their setting.

Breazeale has collected an assortment of visual images ranging from mass-produced trinkets to video recordings of performance art, all part of the community that Breazeale said has grown out of the trial.

“It was part debating society, part marketplace and, what intrigued me, part art gallery,” wrote Breazeale in her proposal for the exhibit.

Having studied pop culture items related to Operation Desert Storm, Breazeale said she was initially drawn to the trial by the T-shirts and other knickknacks being sold there. Breazeale said she was surprised and fascinated by the enormous variety of visual images.

“This is Chicago Juan,” she said, showing a slide of a vendor who hand-paints baseball caps with O.J.-related slogans, some of which will be displayed in her show. Comparing it to less artistic goods being sold at the courthouse, she said, “It really kicks the aesthetic value up another step.”

Breazeale also points to the guerrilla theater pieces staged by anti-domestic violence groups.

“This is classic L.A. performance art,” said Breazeale of the performance by the Coalition Against Violence Against Women, during which the actors scrolled messages and statistics about battered women on a television made from construction paper. The theater group and the Women’s Action Committee have been asked to perform at Breazeale’s exhibition in March.

“On the Courthouse Steps” will be displayed in a double-width trailer on the Cal State Northridge campus, Breazeale said.

One section will be the “exploitation room,” which will showcase the seedier products of the trial, including a series of baseball-type cards that feature the cast of characters in the murder case.

“I want to recreate the feel of the scene. All of it, from the ultimate tackiness to the people like Rodney Van Worth and Ozell Roberson,” Breazeale said.

Van Worth creates oil paintings about specific issues in the trial, while Roberson collages images of Nicole and O.J. Simpson with those of Martin Luther King Jr. to promote peace.

Van Worth has made more than 50 paintings using cartoonish images and text. “Do innocent people fear DNA testing?” one painting asks.

“Rodney invites people to write on these,” Breazeale said. “In a sense, he starts the art and the world finishes it.”

Breazeale sees Roberson as a black folk artist. A semi-retired former chauffeur, Roberson, 56, is a little shy about the title, however.

In his most ambitious undertaking, Roberson has transformed his 1958 Cadillac into a kind of roaming altar to Nicole Brown Simpson. “The idea was to keep the focus on the victims,” said Roberson, who refers to the murder trial as the “Nicole and Ron” case.

The car is decorated with pictures of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and in place of the Cadillac emblem Roberson has had engraved a dedication that reads: “In Memory of Nicole Brown Simpson, June 12, 1994, Brentwood, CA.”

At least three times a week, Roberson circles the courthouse in the car, while broadcasting recordings of King’s speeches over a public address system.

The decorated Cadillac itself will be on display outside the gallery space, Roberson said.

“The press has portrayed the scene as wacky, or just a bunch of sleaze bag profiteers,” Breazeale said. “It is that, but it’s also made up of people debating serious issues.”