Negativland
"A provocation and a punk-inspired commentary on our mercenary culture…eloquent and impassioned spokesmen for ideas like a 'creative commons'…it's salutary to see these smart and influential guys get a gallery show."
– ART IN AMERICA
"Our Favorite Things"
September 7 - 30, 2012
Opening Reception with Musical Performance: Friday, September 7th; 8–11 PM
Since 1980 the creative collective known as Negativland have been collaboratively creating collage works in fine art, music, CDs, video, radio, and live performance using appropriated sounds, objects, images, and text. They have been sued twice for copyright infringement, fought back, and their work is now referenced and taught in many college courses in the US and has been written about in over 150 books (including "No Logo" by Naomi Klein). Since those two lawsuits, Negativland have been aggressively and publicly involved in advocating significant reforms of our nations copyright laws, with recent visits to Capitol Hill to speak to the staff of various Senators and Congressmen.
Our Favorite Things is Negativland's first retrospective exhibit in Los Angeles, and is a comprehensive survey of both current and older visual art works that have also been exhibited in New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, London, Houston, and Art Basel. The members of Negativland live and work in California, Washington, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, so this opening reception with a live performance is a true rarity not to be missed!
"Declared heroic by their peers for refashioning culture into what the group considers to be more honest statements, Negativland suggests that refusing to be original, in the traditional sense, is the only way to make art that has any depth within commodity capitalism..."
– NEW YORK TIMES
"Negativland isn't just some group of merry pranksters; its art is about tearing apart and reassembling found images, objects, and sounds to create new ones, in an attempt to make social, political and artistic statements. Hilarious and chilling."
– THE ONION
Contact the Gallery Director for availability and purchase info: (323) 666-7667
Pieces below are culled from the Thigmotactic Series, The Volcano Society Series, and Over the Hiccups.
Scroll to the bottom for a video of the complete Live @ La Luz de Jesus perfomance.
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