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.

This is a very emotional time for people, rife with division, anger, frustration. Many people are feeling unstable and upended with the political climate. Given the current fragile state of the world, we need unity more than ever...and we need action. If there is anywhere in America that makes sense for our project; right here, right now, it’s Los Angeles. As artists, we have a responsibility to reflect, react, engage but above all, to not stand by the sidelines. The 14th Factory is an action.

My hope for the 14th Factory is to bring a broad range of minds together, to uplift and inspire, ignite conversation, action and solutions but also to provoke. There are installations here that discuss love, loss, fear, pain, hope...our shared experience, but that also ask the question; as civilizations have risen and fallen, are we now at the brink of collapse or the start of a wonderful new chapter?  Simon Birch has this to say about the project.

This underlying theme informs the work of collaborating artists including Beijing multimedia and performance artist Cang Xin; Hong Kong‐based filmmaker Wing Shya; photographer and graphic designer Stanley Wong (anothermountainman); ceramic artist Sara Tse; New York composer Gary Gunn; UK video artists Scott Carthy and Doug Foster; British punk rockers Penny Rimbaud of the band Crass; Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys and Pauline Black of The Selector, who appear in paintings by Birch and in interviews within the project.

The complete list of collaborators, which forms a global community of interdisciplinary artists from China, Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, include: Simon Birch, Cang Xin, Devin Liston, Dominique Fung, Doug Foster, Eric Hu, Gary Gunn, Gloria Yu, Li Wei, Lily Kwong, Movana Chen, Paul Kember, Penny Rimbaud, Peter Yuill, Prodip Leung, Sara Tse, Scott Carthy, Scott Sporleder, Stanley Wong, Wing Shya, Yang Zhicha.

The 14th Factory features impressive design by Hong Kong‐based KplusK, with Paul Kember as lead architect who also helped design the structural environment of The Meteor in collaboration with Birch. Stretching from floor to ceiling, the enormous sculpture of a crashed meteor reflects the state of civilization collapsing slowly but appearing as a freeze‐frame explosion. Other installations include Birch’s Clear Air Turbulence where salvaged airplane tails fill an outdoor courtyard and The Barmecide Feast, a replica of a set piece from Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar®‐winning 2001: A Space Odyssey and much more.

As part of the experience, the viewer's journey might be filmed for documentary and promotional purposes. Upon completion of its film, The 14th Factory intends to temporarily open the newly created space to the public. This future exhibition is dependent on The 14th Factory obtaining certain permits from the City of Los Angeles. 

On View: March 11, 2017 - May 31, 2017

Address: 440 N. Ave 19 Los Angeles, CA 90031

Donation: $15 in advance through Eventbrite, $18 at the door. Local residents, group access and VIP tour options are also available. Non-profit, community groups, and schools, discounted with advance reservation. Please contact info@the14thfactory.com