Wild Life Street Art Points To Hipsters, Gentrification Via Downtown L.A. Street Signs
Update: Despite our afternoon note yesterday that the art had been taken down, we found one piece that's still up. Photo at the very bottom. First posted at 2:25 p.m. Thursday.
Courtesy Stephen Zeigler
If you need help finding a hipster in downtown Los Angeles just spit and you'll hit one.
Just in case however, with tongue firmly in cheek, it appears that street artist Wild Life has added some public service announcements to a pair of "Historic Downtown" street signs that feature stacks of arrow-driven directions to such places as the "Reagan State Bldg," "Grand Central Market," and "LA Theatre Center:"
Now tourists will be on sure footing when they also need to head to ...
-Hipsters.
-Gentrification.
-Skid Row.
The remixed signs are around Fourth and Spring streets, where all the new people are flocking.
Courtesy Stephen Zeigler
Love it.
The Skid Row one might need some explaining, however: The city doesn't seem to officially recognize Skid Row as a community; the area is mainly defined by the much more genteel name of Central City East.
Doesn't sound like America's biggest homeless Mecca to us.
Photographer Stephen Zeigler was kind enough to send us these shots of Wild Life's apparent handy work.
Courtesy Stephen Zeigler
Mr. (or Ms.) Life is the artist name connected to paper-mache surfers in the L.A. River and, with partner Calder Greenwood, paper-mache sunbathers downtown.
So just what is the artist trying to say here? It's all in the eye of the beholder. Just do us a favor while you're enjoying the aesthetics: Don't actually spit on the hipsters.
Courtesy Stephen Zeigler
[Update at 1:01 p.m. Friday]: We found a survivor. It looks to be east of Main Street around Fourth or Fifth streets in the Toy District.
[First spotted at Curbed LA].
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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