Transported to a World Without War.

Jan 10th, 2004

by Samuel Proof

Fig 1

Nestled away in the dark alleys hidden behind LA's garment district is a fish factory. Smoked fish. Smoked salmon and it fills the air. Three Star Fish smokes and packs fish and it stands the guardian over something secret. Behind the factory is a warehouse community. Artists, sculptures, vagabonds and actually some of my oldest dearest friends.

Beneath all the lofts, all the metal working machines, all the oil paints and silk screens is the Transport Gallery run by gallery director Mike Russek. This past Friday, Jan 9^th the Transport Gallery had an opening reception for the "Yo! What happened to Peace?" an exhibition featuring Buff monster, Magmo The Destroyer, roughly thirty other artists not to mention OBEY's own Shepard Fairey.

The reception itself was jammed packed with viewers, drinkers, artists, residents and death herself even made an appearance to view the exhibition of peace and antiwar posters curated by John Carr. Along with the statuesque black burka and high heel wearing lady death, the gallery had a live Flamenco guitarist, a bar with $3 mixed drinks and $2 beers (if memory serves, cause honestly at a price like that memory is the first thing to go) and reasonably priced prints ranging around 30 to 40 dollars on average.

Fig 2

A few of the rarer prints, Fairey's "Radicals" and "OBEY Eagle" 2 color silkscreens printed on metal ran for $500 (though again prints of the work themselves ran at $40). Shepard himself made a brief appearance sporting a Sex Pistols shirts.

Sporting just under 60 different posters, the art ran the gambit from the intricate Japanese styled Tsunami Piece, Graffiti inspired works of silkscreen with spray paint, to the in your face Untitled work by Los Angeles artist Edward Colver which read Now Appearing and featured the US Stars and Strips, then followed by Coming Soon with the Nazi Flag behind bars.

The 'Yo! What Happened to Peace?' exhibition features artists from the world over, from as far as New Zealand's Mike Davidson, Tokyo's Yuri Shimojo and Malleus from Italy; To a full on cluster of New York and California artists including artists from the loft community living above the Transport Gallery. The exhibition had already shown at in Tokyo in May 2003 as a somewhat smaller exhibit and was expanded for the purposes of showing at Transport.

Fig 3

Eric Drooker's "Troubadour" stars a gas-masked guitarist in blue, yellow and black and sharp lines that pull it out from it's surroundings , Robbie Conal seems to be inspired by both the Barnes and Nobles line etchings of dead authors and Fellow Artist Fairey's own OBEY work with his etching of Gandhi over the Black on Orange OBEY themed "Watching". Fairey himself sports three pieces the propaganda poster "War is the Answer" (see fig. 2 ), The US currency styled "OBEY Eagle" and the Warhol inspired "Radicals" featuring Andy himself along side, Martin Luther King and two other world renowned Radicals.

The diversity in the art doesn't stop merely at style but message as well. Whether it is the comedic satire of Bush and Cheyenne riding around the giant Haliburton metal monster of "The Machine" by John Carr or very antiwar Chicken wringing Bush of "This Man Has No Scruples" (see fig. 1.) by Gary Houston of Voodoo Catbox. There was also the Pro-peace posters that presented other solutions such as "No Car No War" by Parisian artists Jerome "G" Demuth and the exhibitions own Show poster simply featuring a pink butterfly on black by Futures (see fig. 3).

Yo! What Happened to Peace is currently on display at the Transport Gallery from January 9^th to February 1^st 2004. 1308 Factory Place, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

FEATURING HANDCRAFTED PRINTS BY:
Christian Azul/Aerosol Warfare, Roger Bova, Glenn Brooks, Buff Monster, Freddi C, John Carr, Ben Collison, Edward Colver, Robbie Conal, Jared Connor, Mike Estano, Mike Davison, Jerome "G" Demuth, Ron Donovan/Firehouse, Doze, Eric Drooker, Dave Ellis, Shepard Fairey/OBEY, Futura, Genevieve Gauckler, Kyle Goen, Hugh Gran, Tiger J. Gushue, Kenji Hirata, Gary Houston/Voodoo Catbox, Juice Design, Lucky Bunny Visual Communications, Mika Machida, Magmo the Destroyer, Malleus, Man One, Poli Marichal, Milagros Melendez, Nayce, Ray Noland/CRO, Melina Rodrigo, Davi Russo, Seripop, Yuri Shimojo, Alex Skramble, Winston Smith, Roger Spence/Graphonic, Chuck Sperry/Firehouse, Seth Tobocman, Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, and Kiku Yamaguchi.

PORTION OF SALES TO BENEFIT
CITIZEN SOLDIER'S campaign to bring soldiers home + legal/PR support for dissenting service members.

This is an expanded version of a show by the same name in Tokyo in May 2003, originally sponsored by Cross World Connections Tokyo (CWC). Presented in association with konscious.com