The No Prior Art exhibition at Central Library’s Getty Gallery showcases a wide variety of stories at the intersection of art, science, and invention. These include:
Prisoners’ Inventions
Angelo and Temporary Services
Prisoners’ Inventions is a powerful and sobering project that began in 2001, when the artist group Temporary Services (then consisting of Marc Fischer, Brett Bloom, and Salem Collo-Julin) invited their friend Angelo—an incarcerated artist from the Pacoima area who had long been a pen pal of Marc’s—to document inventions he saw, used, or heard about within the several men’s prisons throughout California where he was confined. The inventions were recreated by Temporary Services based on Angelo’s detailed drawings. The exhibition, which includes a full-scale replica of Angelo’s cell, has been shown internationally before making its debut in Angelo’s hometown as part of No Prior Art. The Prisoners’ Inventions book is also available to check out, or purchase from the Library Store.
BEACON
Shervone Neckles with Beam Center and Lewis Latimer House Museum
BEACON is a towering steel and LED interactive artwork made in commemoration of the pioneering African American inventor and artist, Lewis H. Latimer. This monolithic sculpture is inspired by Latimer’s 1881 patent for an electric lamp and 1882 patent for a method of manufacturing carbon filaments in incandescent bulbs. Both of these inventions dramatically improved electric lighting, making it more practical and affordable. In 2020-21, Beam Center, a Brooklyn-based youth empowerment organization, along with the Lewis Latimer House Museum in Queens, fostered a collaboration with interdisciplinary Afro-Grenadian-American artist Shervone Neckles to conceive and design BEACON.
Claiming Nature
Plant Patents at the Los Angeles Public Library
This display highlights photos from a selection of 28 recent plant patents–patents that protect new and unique plant characteristics as intellectual property–all issued to California-based inventors and growers between 2021-2023. The LA Central Library serves as a U.S. Patent and Trademark Resource Center, and plant patents are one of the more intriguing resources available in the Science, Technology, & Patents Department on Lower Level 2.
Better Living
The exhibition showcases inventions and original drawings from Long Beach-based artist, inventor, and provocateur, Pippa Garner. Garner is known for her parody forms of consumer products and custom transportation, all done in what she describes as the tradition of Rube Goldberg. Several of the inventions on display, including the Broombox and “Hollywood Effect” Fence, were newly fabricated for No Prior Art in collaboration with the artist.
Great American Inventors
Great American Inventors is a never-before seen body of work featuring American inventors from acclaimed Pasadena-based Japanese-American painter Ben Sakoguchi. They are part of his signature Orange Crate Label series, with hundreds of paintings mirroring the bold graphics and colorful style of traditional California orange crate labels.
Fresh Impressions
Mixografia with Analia Saban
No Prior Art showcases the inventive printmaking process patented by Mixografia, the renowned studio founded in Mexico City in 1973 and based near Downtown Los Angeles for several decades. This display shows an example of the full process of creating a new work, from concept to finished print, using Los Angeles-based artist Analia Saban’s Dry Clean Only series from 2019 as a case study.
New and Useful
19th Patent Models
A collection of 23 patent models from the late 19th century are on display courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware, home to one of the largest collections of these unique pieces of American history. For many years, these miniature models of new inventions were a required part of the patent application process. This display highlights early California inventions (innovations relating to mining and agriculture are prevalent), as well as women inventors from a time when women and people of color could not legally vote or own property but could claim their intellectual property as their own.
Patent Observations
Patent Observations is a newly-commissioned publication series by Public Collectors, a project of Chicago-based artist Marc Fischer. The three volumes highlight dozens of patents awarded to Los Angeles-based inventors, as well as interviews with artists Michael Parker, Gary Cannone, and LAPL Librarian Stella Mittelbach, who oversees the Library’s intellectual property resources. Copies of Patent Observations are available to check out, or purchase from the Library Store.
Medicine and Quackery: Belief in Healing
Dr. Hans Davidson
A selection of curious devices from the collection of Dr. Hans Davidson, director of the Southern California Medical Museum. In the field of medicine, there is a perpetual demand for instant cures and a naturally strong desire to believe in the effectiveness of new or experimental treatments. While most of the antique objects on display are examples of quackery, or pseudo-science, some are legitimate medical advancements - visitors are invited to try and distinguish between them.
Alchemy of Color
This display features 6 photographic plates by Los Angeles-based artist Tristan Duke, widely recognized for his experiments with optics and perception. These new images are made using one of the earliest and most obscure methods for producing color photography without any pigments or dyes. This process was invented by 19th century physicist Gabriel Lippmann, and the resulting images have a striking quality unlike other forms of photography. Duke has applied this superseded technology to capture scenes around contemporary California, including the Echo Park neighborhood where his studio is located.
Re-Inventions
Re-Inventions is a series of mixed media prints by New York-based multimedia artist Ellen K. Levy. The two works on view, Colonization of Space and Portrait as an Astronaut, explore the relationships between art and science, space and ownership, and the virtual and physical.
Real Magic
@physicsfun, from the collection of Ray Hall
A selection of physics toys and related products from the personal collection of Dr. Ray Hall, Professor of Physics at Fresno State and creator of the viral @physicsfun Instagram page. Dr. Hall’s videos reveal the surprising science behind popular toys, reinforcing his belief that physics is “the real magic of the universe.” Click here for a guide to the pieces on display in the exhibition at Central Library.
Sankofa City
Ben Caldwell/KAOS Network
KAOS Network is an intergenerational, Afro-futuristic art and innovation lab run by visionary filmmaker, educator, and community organizer Ben Caldwell. In operation since 1984 in Leimert Park Village, the heart of LA’s Black community, KAOS operates as a space for youth art and tech workshops and urban planning meetings by day, and open-mic freestyle performances and film screenings by night. Sankofa City is a collaborative community design project, created by Caldwell and a range of individual and institutional partners, to imagine a future for the neighborhood rich with cultural heritage and memory. On view are a full-scale prototype MicroShuttle designed and engineered by Raul-David “Retro” Poblano, and a hacked and funkified payphone that tells stories connecting the listener to visions of the future informed by ancestral wisdom.
Utopia Machine
Through a newly commissioned body of work, artist Ellen Harvey invites you to be a part of the No Prior Art exhibition by responding to the question: what would make our world into a utopia? Selected suggestions will inspire fictional patent drawings created by Harvey that combine to form a larger artwork called The Utopia Machine. To submit, visit the exhibition at Central Library, or submit online at: utopiamachine.org.
Learn more about Ellen Harvey’s work: A Chat With Ellen Harvey