The 14th Factory: largest experiential Art Project in LA
The 14th Factory is a monumental, multiple-media, socially engaged art and documentary experience conceived by the Hong Kong-based British artist Simon Birch. Taking over three acres of an empty industrial warehouse and lot on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles, the location has been transformed into a factory where Birch and his 20 creative collaborators work and manufacture their art, creating an ever-changing immersive environment of 14 interlinked spaces comprised of video, installation, sculpture, paintings and performance.
Presented by Hong-Kong based British artist Simon Birch, the installation features an exact replica of a room from the legendary Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a room where 300 pitchforks are hanging from the ceiling above the guests, a room with pieces of a Ferrari that the team crashed and filmed themselves, and a bunch of incredible video installations.
In entering The 14th Factory, the visitor is transformed into a central player in a collaboratively fabricated adventure that engages and unfolds, uniting individuals to the creative process and to each other. The exhibition challenges the current political climate by celebrating creative diversity and unity and to overcome obstacles and challenges as a global society.
About Simon Birch and The 14th Factory
British‐born, working class, of Armenian ancestry, Simon Birch dropped out of school early on and worked a variety of jobs, from rave party organizer and rock climbing entrepreneur in Britain and Australia, to construction worker, bouncer and DJ to support his emerging painting habit in Hong Kong. Through these years, he met and worked with a range of artists, filmmakers, designers, musicians, skaters, entrepreneurs, and adventurers, forming a wide‐reaching but close‐knit group of friends and collaborators across cultures and disciplines around the world. The 14th Factory emerged from these connections.
Over the last few years, Birch has ventured into film and installation work culminating in some particularly notable large‐scale projects: Azhanti High Lightning (2007, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore), This Brutal House (April 2008, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery and Annex, Chai Wan) and the 20,000sq ft multimedia installation ‘HOPE & GLORY: A Conceptual Circus’ (April 2010, ArtisTree, TaiKoo Place, Hong Kong). These large multimedia projects included film, paintings, installation, sculpture, and performance housed in specifically configured spaces. Birch’s work has been featured and reviewed in many international publications, including Artforum, The Guardian, The International Herald Tribune, Time Out and the New York Times.
About The 14th Factory Foundation
The 14th Factory Foundation is an independent, 501(c)(3) non‐profit global artist collective whose mission is to create large‐scale contemporary art experiences that act as vehicles for social impact.