Los Angeles-based artist Wild Life recently took over his city's landmarks in a giant guerilla art installation that has urban residents confused.
Eight random areas of downtown L.A. have been marked with what appear to be official city plaques, offering elaborate background information about the dumpsters, city blocks, and signposts to which they are affixed, reports The Lost Angeles Times. The plaques are even equipped with faux-signatures from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch, and allude to A-list artists and directors like Yoko Ono, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Werner Herzog as alleged designers of the city's downtown spots.
But the mysterious art project, which goes by the name of "Art Appears," is really just a giant hoax. We hate to break it to you, but the dumpster on Traction Avenue was not designed by Andy Warhol. The so-called "Thirsty Palms" exhibit on 2nd Street? Not by Chris Burden, says Curbed LA.
So what was the point of this gigantic misattribution project, you ask? “His only intention is to bring art and culture to the streets of Los Angeles by any means necessary," states Stephen Zeigler, owner of the L.A. art space 118 Winston, in an email to The LA Times. "Look, the mayor's name has shown up on much worse things than my stupid little signs."
What do you think of Wild Life's signage efforts? Was it a creative way of bringing attention to the oft-overlooked pieces of L.A.'s landscape? Or did the artist go too far?
Check out a slideshow of L.A.'s top street art stories below.
