From the press release:
Old City Gallery Who Lost Everything to a Landfill Puts Down New Roots in Port Richmond, Exhibiting Out of the Ash: New Work by Theresa Pfarr
Landfill over Art? How about a gallery’s 15 year collection? Paintings, drawings sculptures, video and sound art, as well as documentation of seminal conceptual and installation based pieces from the 90’s? That’s exactly what happened to longtime Old City gallery Carbon14 when they crossed paths with an Old City Developer in 2008, and a long civil suit ensued.
Shockingly, the gallery did not come out on the top of the suit, as little value was given to their art collection and contents of their personal art studios.
Precedents for conceptual, installation and video arts worth in a tort action haven’t been established in this kind of case before, which brings up complex questions of intellectual property, and the consequences of its destruction.
“It was very shocking to see the Philadelphia Civil Court system so geared towards the Big Guy,“ says artist and co-founder of carbon14, Andrew Warner. “Whoever has the deepest pockets wins, that’s basically justice. I really had this idealistic view of justice coming into it. I mean, I had the guy on video, destroying artwork. In the end it didn’t matter.” says Warner.
Carbon 14
New Work by Theresa Pfarr
Opening: 6-10pm
First Friday, August 5th
3239 Amber St
Philadelphia, PA
