Pandora Gold Bead - JH letter

Since 1980, the pioneering sound-collage band and art collective Negativland has worked with appropriated sounds, objects, images and text - much of it taken from the realm of corporately owned popular culture.

At times, this practice has put the group on a collision course with copyright laws. In 1991, the band was sued by Island Records after using a U2 sample on a parody single as well as Pandora Gold Bead - JH letter "U" and numeral "2" on the song's cover art. Faced with the prospect of losing more money than they'd made in their entire careers, the band and its label at the time were forced to settle out of court, and the experience made its members advocates for copyright reform.

Now Heights gallery Nau-haus presents Negativland: Our Favorite Things, a survey of group members' collages and assemblages that also includes photo-based paintings, prints, album art, videos and models. Media literacy and wacky surrealism are common thematic staples of their work, which at its weakest has little to set Pandora Gold Bead - J12 apart from that of other assemblage artists.

Still, the show offers irrefutable visual evidence of just how much care, intelligence and creativity go into Negativland's work with appropriated material, thereby reinforcing the argument that current copyright laws can stifle the creation of art rather than protect artists' rights.

Often members - the collective Pandora Gold Bead - J72 included between three and six people at various points - will hang on to a found, or in some cases inherited, object before giving it the right visual mash-up to call home.

Their survey has found Pandora Gold Bead - J41 right home at Nau-haus, where gallery owner and kindred spirit Dan Mitchell Allison has filled the walls with a loving installation of their richly varied output.