In December 2010 Los Angeles witnessed a major act of censorship by the Museum of Contemporary Art. Not a single Los Angeles based organization even questioned this shameful act, let alone protest it or defend the freedom of expression.
A group of Los Angeles artists responded by organizing a very successful street campaign, reports of which have been covered by major news and internet media outlets internationally.
Following the censorship of Blu’s mural at MOCA’s Geffen building, the first of a series of street art started appearing in Los Angeles.
“LA Anonymous” created Supreme {ARTS} Leader, a paste-up that appeared just a few blocks from MOCA. Images of the artwork spread widely through the internet when LA Times published it the next day.
At a time when Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles was about to launch “Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum survey of the history of graffiti and street art presented in the United States”, the city of Los Angeles has launched an all out attack on “street artists”.
As the scandal continued into 2010 more artists joined LA RAW art action. There were several other street actions including a major one which involved more than twenty artists at the opening night of MOCA’s “Art in the Streets”.
4.16.2011
© Shervin Shahbazi
Monday January 3, 2011
Laser Graffiti Performance
A group of Los Angeles artists and war veterans got together in front of the whitewashed wall at MOCA to hold a street art performance to protest MOCA’s censorship of Blu’s anti-war mural. A video of the protest was viewed over 30,000 times within the first 48 hours. LA Times posted a report about the event which can be found here.
© Shervin Shahbazi
© Shervin Shahbazi
To see more of LA RAW art actions please visit LA RAW blog or LA RAW Facebook page.