Artist sues LA museum after his empty sack exhibit gets thrown away
Artist said premature removal of artwork by city maintenance crew was ‘gut wrenching’
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Your support makes all the difference.An artist has announced he is planning to sue the city of Los Angeles and a museum after they accidentally threw away his artwork, it has been reported.
David Lew, also known as the artist Shark Toof, filed legal claims against the Chinese American Museum and the city of Los Angeles following the removal of an art installation in the museum’s open-air courtyard this week.
Maintenance workers for the city of Los Angeles were said to have cleared-away the artwork, titled Shayu De Yi Nian Lai See (Year of the Shark Red Packet), a matter of days before it was due to be uninstalled at the museum site, according to court documents and the Los Angeles Times.
Mr Lew claims the museum threw away his work while it was still on display as part of a 2018 exhibition titled Don't Believe the Hype: LA Asian Americans in Hip-Hop.
His installation, which was composed of 88 canvas bags, was designed to degrade over time, having resembled washing lines historically owned by Chinese immigrants to Los Angeles, the Times reported.
The lawsuit says the Chinese Museum did not have any representatives present when Mr Lews’ work was uninstalled, and that it appeared to have been thrown away accidentally, according to a co-curator.
The museum also argued that the artwork was not an official installation, but merchandise that would be sold in partnership with Mr Lew afterwards.
At least a dozen of the bags involved in the art installation had fallen down during its time in the museum courtyard, Mr Lew told the Times, but that “not being able to see these things after eight months, at the location, was gut-wrenching”.
A lawyer for the museum said in response that “the Friends of the Chinese American Museum did nothing wrong with respect to the tote bags that decorated the courtyard outside the museum”.
“I look forward to proving that the claims against my client have no merit," the museum’s lawyer added.
The Chinese Museum building is owned and maintained by the city of Los Angeles.
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