One of the most transformative and impactful art installations in the US right now, 14th Factory is a story of overcoming adversity as a global traveler.
As an artist living in Hong Kong for the past 20 years, Simon Birch was forced to develop his own platform. Everything from finding space, to finding an audience, to funding it himself, set him on a path as an 'artist-entrepreneur' as he describes it.
As Birch's success grew, he began creating bigger, more experimental installations that are somewhat outside of the formal art world and establishment.
After four years of trying to get 14th Factory as a major US installation, Birch and team opened the installation in 2016 to major acclaim.
He's talked about the energy of the show as a "compressed mirror" that takes into account his own personal exposure to "poverty and wealth, violence and love, fear and hope, creation and destruction."
14th factory is both and escape from and a reflection of the confusion, darkness, and hope people are experiencing right now in America and around the world.