Introduction

SAFE DISSENT-

Chalk on Canvas- 2012

Jonaya K in Conjunction with the People of Los Angeles

About Public Art:

Public Art has been around forever. Pompeii was covered in political and not so political art including many small works of lewd and expressive figurative art. When there is public dissent in any time or place, public art precedes it. The French Revolution produced many pieces of political art that showcased people's dissent. Los Angeles has been a hub for this kind of guerrilla public

 art.

 In the late seventies ASCO, an amazing collective of young Chicano artists, created art all over the city. This included spray painting LACMA with their names after a member was told that the reason there was no Chicano art in the museum was because Chicanos didn't create art, they created crafts. As such, they turned the entire BUILDING into an art piece. Recently a picture of their deed hung inside LACMA as a part of an exhibition on their groundbreaking work. This guerrilla styled art is woven into the city’s historical fabric.

 What is Chalking?

Using chalk to draw transitory images has been in use since humans discovered the medium. From political statements on the streets of 5^th and Spring to a child’s hopscotch game, writing on public property is de rigueur for our species. Currently the term “chalking” has been a way to describe using chalk to express dissent with one’s country or hometown polices. It has been a way for activists to fight back…without physical fighting. Essentially this follows the grand tradition of using art as freedom of expression.

What is Safe Dissent?

Due to the political climate of our country and currently the city of Los Angeles, public dissent as art has been seen as “graffiti”. Writing in chalk in Los Angeles’ public sidewalks and parks is considered vandalism despite the transitory nature of the medium. Even when it is raining, the City has cracked down on dissidents and protestors expressing their First Amendment rights by chalking on city streets. Many People arrested at LA’s last art walk were NOT protestors. They were bystanders who chose to express themselves after being handed chalk and warned of the consequences.

Safe Dissent is a piece made in collaboration with many artists, YOU included. It is a way to challenge the current notions about what art is and what “graffiti” is. By chalking on canvas, our messages don’t change, but they become safer and accepted because chalking on canvas is not considered graffiti since it is not a public space. It is a way to exercise our political leanings, our feelings, and even our mundanities to the world without being beaten and arrested for it. Writing on canvas is artistic. Writing on sidewalks is criminal.

The important question becomes this: Do you really want to live in a city where children will have to buy canvases to prove their summer scribbling is art, not graffiti?