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LA Police Raid Gallery Show

May 9, 2005

Via Art for a Change, we learn that police in Los Angeles raided an art gallery and closed down the show due to the “agressive and offensive” nature of the show’s content. The show, called Mark of the Beast, at Transport Gallery in L.A., used altered corporate logos to investigate globalization and consumerism. From the advance:

Capitalist Globalization is no longer an evil threat but a dark reality in the 21st century. Multinational companies condition the consuming masses with lies, deception and manipulation in the form of advertising tricks and fetishized logos…. For one night in downtown Los Angeles, we will hold a conscious happening, aimed directly at the issues of consumerism and alternative globalization. Please come out and support in hopes that together we can find truth amongst the many lies. To further carry our messages to the everyday world, there will be live silk-screening throughout the evening, “arming” guests with protest statements in the form of logo spoofs.

Mark Vallen from Art For A Change says:

It wasn’t until May 8th that someone told me the Los Angeles Police Department had raided and closed down the exhibit. To my knowledge the raid and closure was not covered by local newspaper, television, or radio news outlets (our free press was no doubt too busy reporting on the Michael Jackson trial and couldn’t be bothered with blatant violations of citizen’s First Amendment rights). Only a few bloggers have caught wind of the story and the LA arts community seems to be blissfully unaware – or unconcerned – that the LAPD has now become the city’s premiere agency for art criticism. Might the police raid have had something to do with the content and objective of the show?

That’s apparantly what the police themselves told the gallery. This comes only a few weeks after the Secret Service visited a Chicago gallery show.
Read the rest of Mark’s post here and check out the rest of his site while you’re at it, it’s a hell of a resource.

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4 comments on “LA Police Raid Gallery Show”

damn. thats really fucked up! (not to mention scary). those distorted logos are so common anyway. all of those logos are sold on t-shirts in venic everyday.
some of the best puns on corporate logos ive seen are put out by a group of chicano artists called industrias ilegales. check it out: http://www.industriasilegales.com/

Kinda funny that the content is considered “agressive and offensive” i would definately have to agree! These coporate logos aand their distortions are exetremely offensive, and its disturbing that we recognize them as symbols for consumption and not communication.
The next step of the WHOLE L.A.P.D force should be to dismantle every single billboard that uses these “offensive” symbols! Then take all those damn golden arches off the sidewalks, then, THEN, THEN!!!!
Totally obscene, i demand a response,
RI*T!

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