West Hollywood’s trippy new public art piece flows all over the building at the corner of Robertson and Santa Monica, and its colossal, color-rich characters command your immediate attention.
The art work, by L.A.-based artist Lauren YS, was commissioned by the “Queer to Stay” campaign, which Showtime and the Human Rights Campaign started last year to provide resources for LGBTQ-owned businesses and help them survive the pandemic lockdown.
The assignment awarded to YS was very broad: design a piece celebrating the queer community with a special focus on QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous People of Color) people.
“The message I’d like for people to draw,” YS said, “is to honor the beauty and power in gender fluidity, and to uplift and protect queer businesses and people, especially those who are least advantaged.”
WeHo city leaders share the same goal.
“I just want to re-iterate how important this is,” Councilmember Sepi Shyne said. “The LGBTQ businesses are proven to fail at a higher rate than non-LGBTQ businesses.”
Rife with queer symbolism such as butterflies and carnations, “Queer to Stay” embodies and expands the signature space-age, hypercolor style Lauren YS has become known for. The three figures are an homage to fellow artists Nativeboytoy, ALOK and Basit.
YS recently designed the “Stop Asian Hate” campaign artwork seen across Los Angeles, and has a solo exhibit coming this summer to the Heron Arts gallery in San Francisco.
For more information, visit the artist’s web page and Instagram.
Excellent work by the Artist Lauren YS and she really catches the spirit of the Great City of West Hollywood with her “Stop Asian Hate” campaign along with her support for “Black Lives Matter” and, the LGBTQ+ representation 💓. Hope to see MORE of this artwork throughout the City up to and including the digital billboards.
It’s graffiti, and someone at city hall, I suppose, wanted to demonstrate how inclusive we are and allowed this mess, which we are expected to applaud when almost everyone who sees it hates it but we can’t say so. Fortunately, that building is going to be demolished in the near future and we’ll be rid of this … art!
More like graffiti is more like the times when I would paste stickers on the back of cop cars that said “Support the Police, Beat yourself up ❗ ” when they busy getting snacks or the times when I simply spray painted “ACAB” on rows of parked patrol cars. 🎨
There way too many monochromatic bland buildings in the Great City of West Hollywood that totally are need of this kind of artwork to pick the place up ❗ As for the adverse economic impact of the pandemic ☣ and the necessary lockdown, we should do what many Progressive Europeans did and, cancel the rent until we reach herd immunity.
Perhaps you have not had the benefit of travel and exposure to valid architectural and design types. Not sure what buildings you indicate as being monochromatic and bland. Could these be the products of our own recent making from architects unskilled in any degree of aesthetic value? If so they need to be covered in offensive graffiti? Some see authentic beauty and can easily recognize blight. Not sure what your real point is.
On the other point, one could agree.
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Done my fair share of travel but, Interpol & the State Department have curtailed my activities for some strange reasons. So you might NOT want to bring me up in conversations going through international airports. Now the UAE has some epic Architecture and Design with abundant employment opportunity but, I got deported after helping organize the Steel Workers Union that included CAD Designers. High resolution electronic billboard hacking is another form artistic expression.
Please don’t advocate for innocent buildings to also become victims of this random, offensive graffiti spread. Perhaps the “artist” is unaware that arbitrary work done in a less than respectful manner to achieve her goal of respect seems counterproductive.
Like do you really think I haven’t been active in liberating oppressive designs in the public interest ❓ In the past I posted pictures of art work I was involved with but, some people found it offensive! 🤣 People rising with imperialist power INDECLINE ❗
It commands my attention alright, but it’s an eyesore! She’s talented, to be sure, but that art doesn’t belong on a building and certainly not in that location.
Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD!
Did it ever occur to Council Member Shyne to ask or state why, as she claims, LGBTQ businesses fail at a higher rate than non-LGBTQ businesses? It would be good to hear her rationale other than “they are victims” and to know exactly what she proposes to do about it. The premise and the message appears a bit hostile…not a great way to promote fruitful relationships of any sort.
REALLY ❓ Did it ever occur to you when powerful republicans launch an unprecedented attack of LGBTQ+ Rights that those targeted are going suffer some adversity to say the least? Also republican law makers have defended those discriminating against LGBTQ+ individuals, going so far as to claim that they have a religious right to do so. Now it appears we have de jure discrimination in full practice.
Sepi knows very well that there is “currency” in being a victim. Sometimes what “victims” get is an excuse for not doing well, and the blame for that is always on someone else. Occasionally, “victims” get elected to the city council. If anyone ever made maximum use of the concept of intersectionality it is she.
Yes she sure knows how to play the victim card. And it’s getting old and tired.
So sad to see that Sepi Shyne, Esq. has failed to live up to your expectations as a West Hollywood Attorney.😢 Let me guess, she needs to go from defending the weak “victims’ and become a Hobbesian predatory victimizer.😈 She can start by becoming a republican or better yet a libertarian and join the federalist society, with hobbies like driving endangered species to extinction, ruining the planet and, brutalizing impoverished children; she’s sure to secure a Supreme Court position❗
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