A Brief But Spectacular take on the signs of exploitation

Geoff Bennett:

Edgar Ramirez is an L.A.-based artist who transforms street signs inspired by the industrial landscape where he grew up. He turns the signs into striking pieces of art that highlight the realities of his community.

Here's his Brief But Spectacular take.

Edgar Ramirez, Artist:

There's these predatory loan posters. I noticed them in my drives throughout the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. They're advertisements for fixing your credit or home loans. And I started to collect these signs.

And I thought about who lives in these kind of communities, these underserved communities. When I see signs of exploitation and people being taken advantage of, there's this urge to want to just yell out or rip something up. And my space, my art allows me to do so without judgment.

So I would remove these signs and cut out the lettering and paint over them, as a house painter would. I create stencils of them. It makes me think about the history of what once was there. And I think we tend to forget there's a sense of resilience, determination and perseverance.

And I find that akin to the people that live and thrive in these communities. I grew up in Los Angeles, California, in a small town called Wilmington. It's a neighborhood characterized by heavy industry, oil refineries, one of the world's busiest ports. There's a lot of beauty to be found within this neighborhood, especially with the people.

Like my parents, immigrants, they came here in the '70s, predominantly Mexican-American. From a really early age, I was really into impressionist art. And that sort of led me to Monet and van Gogh, Turner, Constable.

It's something that found me. I hope that, when people see my work, they get a great sense of where they're at. I think about all these layers, all this noise that make up the city. And, essentially, that's the language that I'm doing when I'm making these paintings. It's sort of mimicking how I see things in the city working.

My community and the people that I have shown this to have responded in a way where they're acknowledging it. I hope my art helps people question what's around them.

My name is Edgar Ramirez, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on the science of exploitation.

Geoff Bennett:

And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.