We screwed up.
Three years ago we learned about a war in Congo. A war that has taken millions of lives and continues to rape and kill daily.
Since that day we have hitchhiked, ridden bikes across the country and gone door to door building a coalition of people who want to see peace in Congo.
In our travels, the first place we felt truly welcomed was the Arts District. This was the neighborhood that accepted us for who we were and showed us – literally on the walls – how to speak up.
And so it was tragic to learn today that other members of that community felt disrespected by us and our actions.
After weeks of searching for a free wall, the wall on 2nd and Garey was donated to us. We were told by the owner that the beautiful mural on the wall was scheduled to be sandblasted clean to the brick in the next 2 months. Before the wall was cleaned, we wanted to use it to make a statement of solidarity in the community.
And so we gathered hundreds of faces from around LA and Congo who all stood for an end to our worlds deadliest war, and we pasted them side by side. Instead of asking for signatures, we asked for faces. And each of those faces will be faxed directly to the White House.
The man in the center of the wall was a music photographer in the 70s who documented the peace movement of Dylan, Marley and Hendrix. The man on the left built a hospital in the war-region and does over a dozen surgeries a day for raped women and injured children. The woman on the right has pulled together women from across the war-region to take a stand and publicly take rapists to trial.
It was not our intention to disrespect the artists of that wall. Or any wall. We love the art in our community and treasure the freedom to say what we feel however we feel it. The point was to elevate the heroic nature of protest. And give people a chance to make themselves heard and seen. Something this neighborhood helped teach us.
But in the end, we did all of this on the wrong wall. And we screwed up. We respect the time, energy, money and talent that went into creating that mural. To the MSK crew and supporters – we apologize.
Had we known yesterday what we know today, we would have gone directly to the artists and talked about how we could do it together. We did not.
Because of this however, we learned today of the campaign against LA’s recent mural ban. Whistleblowing, like art, is about saying what needs to be said. And we are joining a chorus of voices in saying that that this ban must be revoked.
There is an important blog about it here http://saberone.com/blog/
We are committed to partnering however we can to gather signatures for this petition, offering policy support and doing all we can to continue to make our city an evolving, provocative, and beautiful place.
Today at 6pm, I will be at the wall at 2nd and Garey to speak openly and freely with anyone who would like to talk further.
Sean
[...] FALLING WHISTLES [...]
That’s a lot of words. All of them, insufficient.
You looked at the wall. You painted over the wall. Who does that? Words can’t fix it. Good intentions can’t make up for it. No sorries or reasons or explanations about what you were doing can change that.
You say “The point was to elevate the heroic nature of protest.”
Instead, you’ve degraded the heroism of your friend and neighbors; specifically the grafitti artists who graced our city and made it lovelier, but whose skill and labor of love is now hidden beneath your paint.
You’ve managed to alienate your supporters active and latent, and I have to question whether your cause is a moral one. You could have picked another wall. To honor protest you had the option of honoring the existing mural, restoring it, or replacing it with another one like it. Instead you looked at it. And you painted over it.
Who does that?
Where was the political consciousness when it comes to your own actions? Where was the intent to do good, here? An apology is hardly enough. Take yours down, and invite the previous artists to reinstall their work or a close analog. Oh — and pay for their paint, and for their labor.
I just don’t see how anything less can rise to the level of the good work you say you’re doing.
john
As a fellow painter who donates 100% of my proceeds to the women of the Congo through Women to Women International,I applaud you in your intentions. You only meant to do good.
Besides the unbelievable ego demonstrated by covering other artist’s’ work…the use of paper and glue is nothing but a bigger insult as it will be peeling and fading and littering the area in a matter of weeks. Utilizing art to bring attention to an issue is admirable…but not when it is done in a destructive manner. The original mural was paint – paint that can weather the elements – paint that will not look like crap in a matter of weeks. Any fool can slap an image up with glue…but those same fools never come back to clean up the resulting mess. I do hope the city will sandblast as scheduled – otherwise your “art” will be peeling and blighting the neighborhood for months.
Fix it then. Restore the murals.
If financial help to Africa is to be based on the destruction of culture and art in America, then why in the hell should we send money to Africa? I sure will not send a thin dime.
Get your collective butts out there and restore the murals by your own hands.
[...] of a beloved piece. Falling Whistles is obviously mortified and its director, Sean Carasso, posted a major mea culpa on its site this morning humbly apologizing to L.A., artists, and anyone in the world that might be offended by his [...]
To those that are attacking this NGO, what point are you trying to prove?
are you guys saying that this organization was careless and ruthless in defacing art? that they did not care about what they did and their apology and explanation does no justice to the massacare that was done?
yes, those murals were beautiful and it was sad to see them go, but who is the real enemy? the city said they were going to sand blast it anyway so might as well put something else up that was approved and that means something than having a plain white wall again.
did you guys research and read about this NGO? probably not because you are recognizing them for their 1 mistake which they were apologetic and sincere about and not recognizing why they put up those posters in the first place. talk about a real world problem, these guys are actually making a difference in the world.
you guys wont give a dime to this NGO right? when did you ever give a dime to any good cause? probably don’t even support the art community.
stop pointing fingers and blaming the wrong people