ART PROJECTION SERVICES: ARTtorneys At Work was an installation project during the culture wars in the US, resulting in the defunding of the National Endowment for the Arts for individual artists.
ARTtorneys At Work was founded by Karen Atkinson in response to the need to fight for freedom of expression in this country. With the horrific claims against the freedom to speak freely, and the challenges all of us are up against in voicing our opinions, the time to act is now. This is not a new repression, but has increased considerably with the National Endowment for the Arts controversy, and key public "representatives" such as Jesse Helms and Dana Rohrabacher acting against free speech.
The ARTtorneys At Work produces work to speak for freedom of expression and other issues related to the arts, including public posters, works for exhibition, and various other ways to get the word out, including STICK-ITS, Ra-Decals for the Freedom of Expression, which are self-adheisive stickers that can be stuck anywhere. A series of posters are being designed, following the current one "Visionaries of Their Time", which features a photo of Helms, McCarthy, and Hitler. (Bush was asked to address the AIDS conference in San Francisco early this summer, and he declined, instead, choosing to spend the day with Jesse Helms. During his visit to Helms, he endorsed Helms for re-election and stated that "Helms was a visionary of his time.") This is our response to that statement.
The STICK-ITS were produced with Beverly Naidus, and the posters have been distributed by various members of the community. Mr. Wasil helped collaborate on the "Visionaries" poster. While most of the artists remain anonymous, which we all rather keep that way, the ARTtorneys was developed from an exhibition by Karen Atkinson and Associates that set up a mock lawyers office called "ART PROTECTION SERVICES, Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys For Art" in Los Angeles and sold artist designed postcards and mailing labels at cost to the public to send to their representatives. Over 20,000 postcards were sent from that project.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work, Mock Attorneys Office Signage
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work, Mock Attorneys Office
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. Viewer filling out the postcards created for all those on the National Endowment for the Arts Reauthorization Committee.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. Artists were asked to create postcards to send to the National Endowment for the Arts Reauthorization Committee. Each postcard had images and text asking the committee to consider not censoring artists and to reauthorize the NEA. The view could buy a set of postcards along with the pre-printed address labels and postage. There was a post office box right outside the gallery.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. Package of postcards to purchase and send. List of Artists.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. This signage was updated at the end of every day in the gallery. By the end of the show, over 20,000 postcards were sent. As you can see, we sent more than we had originally anticipated, hence our extension of the signage.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. The artist created these awards in order to "practice law". If you look closely, you will see such signatures as Michael Asher, Doug Huebler, Connie Hatch, Emily Cheng, Erika Rotherberg and other artists.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. Law books were borrowed from a local attorney, and other book covers were made that a lawyers office involved in this kind of activities might have on their bookshelves. All in Red, White and Blue of course.
ART PROTECTION SERVICES: Karen Atkinson and Associates, ARTtorneys At Work. Exhibition Invite.