As hopeful as we can be that the catastrophe down in the Gulf of Mexico will change the way the world or, at least, Americans will think about fossil fuel use, that's very likely not going to happen.
Change doesn't happen because of the spectacular grand gesture, despite how history is later written. It's generally the result of immeasurable, countless ripples, one act connected to the next and the next after that, until one day we realize the course has shifted.
Actor Adrien Griener, film producer Peter Glatzer and sustainable designer Lauren Gropper are calling attention to those ripples in a multi-media platform they founded this year called SHFT. Through videos, installations and other exercises, the collective aims to "curate the culture of today's environment" and by doing so underscore that "sustainability" and "environmentalism" is already a growing and integral thread in our lives.

A first gesture began this weekend with the SHFT Gallery and Pop-Up Shop in the downtown L.A. arts district, timed to the launch of the SHFT.com. an attractive site featuring news, the video series SHFT is producing with its musician pals and a shop selling all things green (it's reminiscent of the store Adrian did a couple of years ago with Wired Magazine in New York and online, and that featured several A+R products at that time).
At the downtown SHFT space, photographer Tierney Gearon, "Not a Cornfield" artist Lauren Bon and visual designer Ramon Coronado are among the artists featuring their works, some with applicable uses.
Designer and Venice local Edie Kahula Pereira curated a wide swath of products, from the BPA-free Foodpod to the Klean Kanteen, a collaborative water can made by SHFT and Shepard Fairey's Studio One. Edie obviously took great pains to corral products that are as relevant to daily use as they are sustainable and great looking.

Among them is the Wasara tableware collection she borrowed from A+R, a line of plates and cups made from sugar cane fiber, bamboo and reed pulp (tree free!) in responsibly certified factories in China. It's always best to avoid using disposable anything, of course, but if the need is there, it's always better to make a responsible choice. Every little act counts.



The SHFT Gallery and Pop-Up Shop is at The Continental, 408 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles. Open through May 27.