Artist Wild Life has an obsession with the Los Angeles River. He and collaborator Calder Greenwood hung a spider from the Sixth Street bridge so it stared down at the river below. Also with Greenwood, he put a surfer in the river which thousands came to gawk at. And now Wild Life has (allegedly) created a unique mural of a battleship, which should be dubbed USS Wildlife. It sits at the base of the 6th street bridge and was rumored to be done completely freehand.
Wild Life uses the city as his canvas, and like the very best artists he makes us see things in an entirely different way. He tells a story about Los Angeles and that story says that anything is possible here. Why shouldn't there be a battleship in the L.A. River? The ship will sail until it disappears one day, either by the hand of the buff or by natural erosion, but while it's there let us appreciate imagination on concrete.
All photos by Stephen Zeigler.
