Artist: Beau Stanton
Year: 2018
Date of Action: Dec 2018-2019
Region: North America
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium:
Confronting Bodies: Wilshire Community Coalition
Description of Artwork: This mural was created as part of an arts initiative at the school, which involved workshops and seminars with students and is intended as an homage to actress Ava Gardner. The surrounding rays are a common device found in many of artist Beau Stanton's murals. Some community members were offended by the rays, which they associate with the Japanese imperialist flag, and have called for the erasure of the entire mural.
The Incident: The superintendent of a Los Angeles school district has unilaterally decided to remove a mural on display on the exterior wall of RFK Community Schools’ theater after some members of the surrounding community complained that visual elements of the mural resembled the Rising Sun flag of Imperialist Japan.
Results of Incident: As of June 2019, artist Beau Stanton agree to revise the mural in order to resolve this dispute which nearly resulted in political censorship. Stanton was alloted $20,000 from the district to amend the mural.
Source:
• https://knx1070.radio.com/blogs/group-demanding-mural-koreatown-go-claiming-it-depicts-japanese-imperial-flag,
• https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-lausd-ava-gardner-mural-20181211-story.html,
• https://www.lataco.com/offensive-koreatown-ava-gardner-mural-will-be-painted-over/,
• https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-koreatown-mural-censorship-20181212-story.html,
• https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-controversial-ava-gardner-mural-20181213-story.html,
• https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/lausd-boxed-corner-over-controversial-mural,
• http://koreanamericanheritage.libsyn.com/kahp-commentary-save-the-mural,
• https://news.artnet.com/art-world/shepard-fairey-defends-beau-stanton-mural-1423192,
• https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/lausd-reverses-course-destruction-controversial-mural,
• http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2019/06/145_269959.html
See also: https://www.instagram.com/p/BrS5jCAgIb5/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1dbnt7ovjl9wy, https://www.instagram.com/p/BrQXlfNANrE/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1kja53k28o9cw, https://hyperallergic.com/476673/after-shepard-fairey-halts-whitewashing-of-offensive-la-mural-art-community-responds/, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-rising-sunburst-ava-20181218-story.html, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-koreatown-mural-censorship-20181219-story.html, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/12/20/national/removal-la-mural-conjures-images-japans-wartime-army-put-hold/#.XD5EI1xKgdU, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-ava-gardner-mural-koreatown-20181221-story.html, https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/inside-the-issues/2018/12/26/shepard-fairey--artist-behind-iconic-obama--hope--poster-talks-political-art-, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/los-angeles-wears-its-art-on-its-sleeve, https://www.change.org/p/los-angles-unified-school-district-say-no-to-censorship-save-mural-at-los-angeles-public-school, https://ncac.org/news/ncac-opposes-removal-of-mural-at-los-angeles-school, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-rfk-mural-koreatown-gyopo-20190318-story.html, https://www.artforum.com/news/mural-in-los-angeles-s-koreatown-reignites-debate-over-censorship-japanese-colonialism-78952, https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-koreatown-school-mural-dispute-20190529-story.html
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Censorpedia is a crowdsourced online database of censorship cases within the arts and in culture. It is aimed at those researching censorship, at activists working for freedom of expression and at artists and other cultural producers whose expression has been subject to censorship or attempted censorship.
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