The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) commissioned the advertising firm TBWA/Chiat/Day to design a series of billboard “art labels” installed throughout the city. The “art” identified at each location consisted of street life, commercial and civic structures, and the people occupying or passing through those spaces.
The premise of the campaign—billboards functioning as labels for works of art—was intended to increase visitation to MOCA. The project, however, was met with immediate criticism from artists and critics in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Knight wrote, “The museum, with its conceptual commercials, appears to be usurping the role of the artist—and a bad artist at that.”
CRISES emerged as a performance project in direct response to MOCA’s billboard campaign. The word CRISES, accompanied by a critical comment, was printed on 8.5 × 11–inch cardstock and mailed to then–MOCA Director Jeremy Strick. The project operates as a commentary on institutional power within the art world—who wields it, and the forces that determine what is recognized as art versus what is dismissed as advertising.
