An activist art collective called Indecline projected a series of graphic videos onto several iconic local buildings, including the ArcLight Cinema on Sunset Boulevard on Monday night, drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The guerrilla protest, titled “For Your Consideration: Ceasefire,” also lit up the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire Boulevard and the Pickford Center for the Study of the Image on Vine Street. Images of wounded Palestinian children and grieving parents attracted the attention of drivers and passersby for hours, amplifying the collective’s call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Founded in 2021 by an anonymous group of photographers, graffiti artists, filmmakers and artists, Indecline is known for its politically charged public art. In 2015, the group claimed to have created the world’s largest piece of graffiti (a 800-metre-wide message reading “This land was our land”) on a disused airstrip in California’s Mojave Desert. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the group unveiled life-size nude statues of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and other cities.
Monday's protest comes just two days after the opening of the group's first retrospective exhibition at the Superchief Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, which chronicles nearly two decades of its guerrilla art actions.
Much like other recent Gaza war-related demonstrations at events like the Oscars and Emmys, the locations selected for Indecline’s protests were intended to highlight Hollywood’s cultural influence. The decision to target the Academy Museum comes after a recent controversy surrounding an exhibition about the film industry’s Jewish founders, further highlighting the thorny questions swirling around cultural institutions over their responsibility to confront issues of social justice. The Pickford Center, named after film legend Mary Pickford, houses the Academy’s technical and conservation efforts, while the ArcLight, though closed since the pandemic, remains a beloved piece of the Los Angeles film landscape.
Images are projected at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum.
(Declination / @ThisIsIndecline (IG))
In a statement, Indecline called for moral responsibility, which it believes lies with those in power: “Even when the world refuses to look at injustice, history has the 20/20 vision of hindsight. Don’t be the bad guys in tomorrow’s history books. Be the resistance today.”
The group plans to continue its protest on Tuesday night, with projections for other high-profile buildings in Los Angeles.
