This project by San Diego-based public artists Deborah Small, Elizabeth Sisco, Scott Kessler, and Louis Hock, with the collaboration of costume designer Cheryl Lindley, included multiple components highlighting a slew of political issues and was timed to coincide with the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego. For Focus Series: Friendly Fire, the artists designed fourteen mock bulletproof vests, each foregrounding different sociopolitical issues, including abortion, affirmative action, and queer liberation. All but one featured black, quilted-satin backs portraying a shooting range target and the vest’s title; the “American Dream” vest was made of paper.
As part of the project, the artists designed a sales brochure, which they mailed with a faux bullet to each of the 3800 delegates attending the convention. The vests were also displayed and sold at a “sweatshop” and retail store—with a red, white, and blue façade and a faux bullet banner—several blocks from the event. The MOCA presentation featured dressmakers’ forms, half wearing the vests and half sporting text from the brochure; it also included video footage of the storefront and its textile workers at work.
Focus Series: Friendly Fire was part of the museum’s Focus Series (1992–1998), which was dedicated to presentations of distinct bodies of work by artists working in all media and featured a roster of distinguished local and international artists.
Focus Series: Friendly Fire was organized by Julie Lazar, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.