The #Art Is Not A Crime “hashtag” social media campaign was started by my venerable co-director of all things propaganda, Shepard Fairey, and his super talented buddy & world renowned graffiti artist, SABER, as a protest against the moratorium on public art murals in Los Angeles. I had viewed their “Art Is Not A Crime” Skywriting Protest on YouTube:
so I was overjoyed to see a SABER Original in my backyard when I moved in to Occupy LA City Hall! The large American flag installation was comprised of several individual Protest signs. Photographed and used as a video background by Occupiers & Media from around the world, I would frequently borrow a tile to drag off to a March; “Speak Up Obama or We Will!” at the Federal Building Protest against banning Medical Marijuana dispensaries; “LAPD We Come In Peace” at the Protest to End Police Brutality in front of LAPD headquarters; and “Bail Out My Mom” for a documentary interview.
When Shepard found out I had moved into a tent on the South Lawn of City Hall he sent down a bunch of posters and stickers and introduced me to SABER over e-mail. I told SABER how much his work had inspired my work on the ground and how we were conducting weekly #Art Is Not A Crime Transmedia Protests.
I also jokingly complained about how heavy his Protest signs were if you were actually going to march for many blocks. We met in person on what became known as “Liberty Hill” on the Sovereign Nation of Freedom & Peace aka the South-East quadrant of the South Lawn of City Hall, and he told me that they were so heavy because they were designed to dual-function as a body shield against rubber bullets & tear gas canisters.
When my Sovereign friends built a TreeHouse as an Art Is Not A Crime Protest Against the Armenian Holocaust, SABER donated three pieces to them to use as Art in the installation, and as shields if necessary, in what became the Last Stand Of The LA International Tort of 2011… the LA Times ran an incredible shot of the LAPD pointing a “bean bag” shotgun at Sovereign citizen Chad Knutsen and his cute dog Lucky at beyond extremely close range with the “LAPD We Come In Peace” shield in the foreground. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for Chad to defend himself more than to cover his face when they shot at him exerting most unnecessary force.
courtesy of the LA Times.
Much of the art from the Revolution is now at the bottom of the LA City Dump, an action that is considered to be a “grave breach” of the 3rd and 4th Geneva Conventions, thereby constituting an International War crime… but good luck trying to assemble the Dream Team to prosecute while the Mayor and Chief of Police are busy congratulating themselves for getting away with it. Meanwhile Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich continues his witch hunt of both Public Art and Protesters exercising their First Amendment rights; and in some States, beautiful collector pieces of hand-blown glass art that dual-function as water pipes are subject to penalties if accidentally referred to as a “B-O-N-G”?!?! Art Is Not A Crime. Glass Is Art. & Prohibition Is Over because it was based on lies to the people that we no longer hold to be self-evident.
When I met the charismatic Jason Harris of Jerome Baker who was unconstitutionally arrested along with 57 others including world-famous entertainer, Tommy Chong, in Operation Pipedream, in front of his installation at CHAMPS, we instantly knew that we wanted to work together on a Live Digital Art Installation for his upcoming Connoisseur Kulture Expo at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, CA.
For many years we have affectionately referred to our part of the media circus that is the Sundance Gifting Lounges as “Drive-Thru Social Action” (TM), getting celebrities to run a gamut of scripted and unscripted “drops” or “shout-outs” for various causes while they are in between trying on free sunglasses. So, when Jason explained that the Furthur Bus would be on display at the show, we decided it was a Winning concept to create social action vignettes surrounding the Furthur Bus, for celebs & tastemakers to generate tweets, instagrams, stills & livestream, culminating with a 3-D #ArtIsNotACrime video postcard filmed on and around the bus itself, where guests are given 60 seconds uncensored to express themselves.
How does this make money you ask? Aw, jeez, can’t you producers leave us alone we’re trying to make ART over here…
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