Under pressure from artists, the council is revising a 2002 law banning murals on most private property to legalize the city’s best-known works and some more recent pieces.
By Richard Winton
From the aging homages to Chicano history on the Eastside to Shepard Fairey’s towering “Peace Goddess” watching over downtown, Los Angeles has earned a reputation as the street mural capital of the world.
But for nearly a decade, much of this artwork has been done illicitly.
City ordinances make it illegal to create murals on the vast majority of private properties. Officials estimate that more than 300 murals have been painted over in the last several years, a fact that has frustrated artists as well as property owners who commission the murals.
“The mural capital of the world is no more,” said the artist Saber, who had a mural covered up by a city-contracted graffiti work crew earlier this year. “They buff beautiful pieces, harass property owners and threaten us like we are in street gangs.”…………………….CONTINUE READING HERE
Its October 14, 2011, day 28 of #OccupyWallstreet. America is rocked. The world is watching, the media is manipulating, people are energized. Citizens have come together to express their frustration with corruption through this robust and peaceful protest movement.
Occupy Wall Street is the first real protest movement of my generation. Satellite movements have sprung up in every major city across the country including Los Angeles. Making art is the best way I know how to participate and what a better way then to create a huge American Flag that breaks up into 64 individual protest signs laid on the South East lawn of City Hall. The slogans written on each sign were grabbed from the related Twitter hash tag topics on #OccupyWallstreet #OccupyLA. With the frustrations of the 99% mounting, Pandora’s Box has been thrust open. Complacency is no longer an option…………
For the artist Saber, participation in the democratic process has always been complicated. He’s an international graffiti legend, holding the world record for the largest graffiti piece, done along the LA river in 1997. Despite its place in the history books, the city of Los Angeles spent a whopping $837,000 to paint over it in 2009. Now Saber is approaching public art laws from a different angle, spearheading an effort to reform Los Angeles’ mural policies…………THE REST.
When graffiti artists recently protested Los Angeles’ ban on street art by tagging their names in the sky where millions of Angelenos could see them, Judy Baca, executive director of the nonprofit Social and Public Art Resource Center, commented, “The graffiti made a wonderful statement: They can’t write on walls. The only place to express themselves is the sky.”…………More From LA Weekly
Artist/activist Saber has never been one to do anything in a “small” way as evidenced by his world record holding graffiti piece on the L.A. River — done in 1997 and visible from space before it was buffed last year. His latest projects are no exception. A couple weeks ago he unleashed a genius skywriting campaign over city hall to try to end the L.A. County mural moratorium and this week he joined forces with Occupy L.A. to contribute his Protest Flag, a 32 x 16 ft flag that divides into 64 separate protest signs, with slogans like “Bail Out Skid Row,” “Ass, Cash or Grass, Republicans Ride For Free” and “Art Is Not a Crime.”……………… MORE FROM Shelly Leopold at LA WEEKLY
Muralists and art administrators are being invited to speak their mind, and stake their claim, in the ongoing overhaul of ordinances that block production of murals at a meeting on Wednesday.
A joint City Council committee will be updated on a proposed mural ordinance culled from the early survey by the Departments of Cultural Affairs and City Planning, according to Tanner Blackman, who has been seeking ways to overhaul existing rules on sign that have blocked fine art mural production from being installed on private property in the City of Los Angeles.
The floor will then be open to public comment, and call for action from artists is expected…
More than 5,000 people, including 2,000 area residents, have signed a petition on Change.org protesting a Los Angeles policy that effectively bans public artwork.
The surge of support follows a daring skywriting protest in September by Saber, a prominent L.A. artist featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s national public art exhibition this year. His associate and friend Piper Severance launched the campaign on Change.org in conjunction with the attention-getting stunt.
“I’m in this campaign for the long haul,” said Saber, who is also selling t-shirts with The Seventh Letter to fund this creative protest. “Los Angeles public art is under attack. I love this city, so my goal is to help Los Angeles reclaim its title as the world’s mural capital.”
