A piece of guerrilla art appeared at Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park this week, underlining the park’s reputation as a center of drugs, addiction and despair.
While Prometheus is known in Greek mythology for rebelliously taking fire from the gods to give to humans, at his statue near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street in Los Angeles on Monday he was using it to heat an oversized meth pipe.
“A lot of our work focuses on parts of the city that have fallen into disrepair, and this particular Prometheus sculpture stood out to us as significant — having eerily taken on the condition of his surroundings,” artist S.C. Mero told The Times.
For longtime residents, MacArthur Park is a shadow of the 35-acre urban oasis it was built to be. Today it is known more for rampant drug use and homelessness, needles strewn on the ground and overdose deaths from fentanyl and other narcotics in the park and nearby alleys. On occasion, medical outreach teams hand out glass pipes and test kits that can detect fentanyl or veterinary tranquilizers in drugs before they’re consumed in an effort they say to saves lives.
The Prometheus statue by artist Nina Saemundsson was erected in 1935 by the federal Works Progress Administration and is one of several art pieces in the park. Throughout the years, vandals have occasionally broken off parts of the left hand, toes and a sphere that the figure originally held. A newsboy statute at another end of the park was mutilated by thieves earlier this year, leaving behind only two bronze shoes.
It was the state of the park and the Prometheus statue that struck Mero and her creative partner, known as Wild Life, Mero wrote on Instagram. Other pieces of her work, like a giant parking meter, pill box and a concrete-stump-turned-enlarged-prescription-bottle, were created in her Skid Row art studio and have dotted L.A.’s urban landscape in the past.
“The sculpture’s fall from grace feels symbolic of [the park] itself … they all have a past life worth remembering,” Mero’s Instagram caption of the Prometheus statue said. “It also gave us a chance to share the origins of the sculpture and its sculptress — Nina Saemundsson — prior to its descent into obscurity.”
Beyond the oversized meth pipe, another addition to the piece is a description that diverts from the original myth of Prometheus as the god of foresight, fire and crafty counsel who taught humans how to use fire for warmth and cooking. Instead, a plaque at the base of the statue says he gave humans fire “for the use of fentanyl, crack cocaine and methamphetamines.”
The issues in the park Mero was highlighting have reached a crisis point after several years of worsening conditions, some say.
L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, elected two years ago as a progressive, has called the park the “Ellis Island of the West Coast,” that acts as the “front yard and backyard” for tens of thousands of working-class residents, adding, “we have to do something.”
In August, Langer’s Deli owner Norm Langer threatened to close his iconic restaurant across the street from the park after nearly 80 years in business, prompting Mayor Karen Bass to pledge to “respond urgently” to the crisis.
Last month, Times columnist Steve Lopez questioned the city’s progress, writing, “I don’t see it. Not for the sake of those who are badly addicted and flirt with death each day, and not for the sake of residents and merchants who need some relief.”
Even LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who helped clean up the park in 2003, today describes it as being in “pretty desperate straits.”
“All of the players who have a stake in that area need to weigh in and be able to provide something on the way toward a solution,” the chief said. “If everybody jumps in, I think it could look markedly different in three to six months.“
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.