The themes, which Label has appropriated have dismantled context through the implication of parody. They have imposed the demand to search for new meaning via hijacking this context. The theme of the space is a symbolic gesture of dismembering this power, using these talismans, which represent hierarchy and systemization in a ploy of context, it allows an assault in dialogue so powerful that our identity may be re-engaged and then reinstated

The Label’s new space was designed with this notion as an enclosing theme. Pieces will reflect the scope of industrialization and its impact on the planet.

Your browser may not support display of this image. The space has employed refurbished factory items whose very history serve as a reminder of their past in the wake of the militant industrial complex. Geoffrey Millard, an artist in from Long Beach, California, assembled these works. They were resurrected from an industrial graveyard of dismantled aerospace production and test equipment. They range from mechanical parts and components from assembly lines to oilrigs to naval submariner cabin mounts. (Incidentally this graveyard was liquidated a month after their completion). Label’s new space welcomes the viewer through a door assembled from a naval gunnery station and sutured gears from a southland stamping press. Machinery handles and instruments are scattered throughout the space as a metaphor of the language of the machine, light fixtures are harnessed in rotary chains while a rotating conveyor belt spins t-shirts. The t-shirts are imprinted with the iconography of stolen art, carried over from the first organized show while a movable rack spins in its center reminding the viewer that this is a cultural bi-product. The walls are addressed with the images of Stackhouse factories and the sewn works of Brooke Larson‘s factory workers. Larson is an artist who currently heads of the Drawings Department at New York’s School of Visual Arts.

The first installation of this collective will be a show entitled Stolen Art which satirically questions what art represents in our society. Dealing with art theft and the motives behind it, this exhibition will serve as a premise to contemplate further issues. Set against the principle backdrop of the appropriation of stolen artwork in the international market the AM seeks to question the scope of its meaning. From drug deal installments to frenzied collectors who feel the works will give them a talismanic power while the range of deified icons looted from religious sites and museums offer to some an ownership of the spiritual. Most importantly it reflects the essential motive of arts purpose thwarted into a world of mere economic exchange rendering its cultural purpose as mute.

Although the exhibition will provide a complete and compelling narrative timeline on the history of art theft it will suggest in a broader scope that we ourselves through industry have become art’s paramount bandit. As culture has allowed itself to fall prey to a siege of hype and an inflated market, the material has replaced meaning burying the true identity of this timeless expression of humanity as a material motivated commodity.

The twelve works from the AM include a video piece by Sophie Calle and segments from the Documentary Stolen and other projected works as well as Roger Hewin’s Mona Lisa the first great theft of the last century and the historical revelation that the hysteria of her theft brought a renegotiation of her net value. Also from Nigeria Ladi Ladebothe film a young man tries to make his community aware of the sanctity of Yoruba culture art and believes that the present lack of balance and ethical integrity in society has been caused by the ongoing looting of spiritual artifacts for sale to the West in the film. His friend is tortured. His crime: he has refused to reveal to the authorities the location of the Oduduwa artifacts believing that they will surely be sold to the highest bidder should they be found. Also to be presented in this series of ongoing projections Caravaggio Conspiracy directed by Nigel Finch and Crack Up with Pat O’Brien.