The 14th Factory: A Guerilla Pop-Culture Exhibition

In an unassuming Los Angeles warehouse sits The 14th Factory, the site of artist Simon Birch’s sprawling sixteen artist collaboration.

Photo Credit: STRUKTR Studios

“This is a very emotional time for people, rife with division, anger, frustration [...] Given the current fragile state of the world, we need unity more than ever...and we need action.” —The 14th Factory Founder and artist Simon Birch.

What Is The 14th Factory?
In a 150,000-square-foot warehouse on the outskirts of Los Angeles stands the The 14th Factory. It is a maze of works by sixteen artists. The works range from photography and architecture to design, video, and paint. With its unique combination of location, color, light, material and mindset, the insight gained through a journey at The 14th Factory is priceless. That is precisely the goal, given that inspiration and social change are the driving forces behind this multi-media art installation created by UK-born, Hong Kong-based artist Simon Birch.

Crusher Installation by Simon Birch //Photo Credit: STRUKTR Studios

Artist Installations
In one piece, Simon Birch uses colorful pitchforks hung delicately from the ceiling around a skylight to suggest that the world use these as revolutionary symbols and tools to create change.

In another section of The 14th Factory is a re-creation of of the iconic bedroom from Stanley Kubrik’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The installation takes the viewer on a journey into the 1968 cult film’s optics, soaked in white light with careful pops of olive-hued furniture — the installation was created in part with Hong Kong-based architectural firm KplusK.

A Space Odyssey Room featuring paintings from Dominique Fung and statues by Prodip Leung // Photo Credit: STRUKTR Studios

Artist Lily Kwong designed her installation, Garlands, at The 14th Factory as a response to climate change. She notes, “The topography is inspired by the landing site of the last moon mission and covered with grass as if the lunar surface has been terra-formed. I've heard the argument that to survive as a species in the future we'll have to pioneer and occupy the moon, Mars, and perhaps even beyond. The dark story implicit in that vision is we've destroyed the beautiful planet we currently call home.”

Next, preview of “The Inevitable,” a short film by Eric Hu and Simon Birch, in which Birch’s own red Ferrari is destroyed in a wreck. It was the last of his possessions, most of which he sold to make The 14th Factory happen. Then turn the corner to view the wreckage, set out along a massive display.

The massive installation that is The 14th Factory allows for full immersion into a new world through perspective, space, color, material, light, and darkness leaving the visitor rich in cultural, political and philosophical takeaways.