Trafficking in freeway art
The street artists behind a freeway mermaid and other sculptures discuss their projects.
The first time I saw her, I wasn’t sure if it was a figment of my imagination: a lone mermaid, casually swimming along a retaining wall on the 10 Freeway. But over the last several months, I have come to expect the sight of her on the Westbound 10 in the vicinity of Cheviot Hills — a surreptitiously installed sculpture of a half-human siren beckoning us out of our cars and into cool water.
The mermaid (she has no official title) turns out to be the work of a street art collective known as Bohemia Incorporated. For a couple of years, the group has been illicitly installing sculptures around Los Angeles — in the dead public spaces at freeway intersections and on freeway retaining walls.
Some last for hours (such as one that featured a paint brush and the phrase “Don’t worry I pay taxes”), while others run for months (such as the sculpture of a woman taking a selfie on the 5 Freeway in Silver Lake). But the mermaid has been in place for more than two years.
“CalTrans seems to like it,” says one of the members of the two-man team, who asked to remain anonymous because adhering sculptures to freeway walls could be considered vandalism. “They buff that wall regularly, and the mermaid is always left untouched.”
It’s not the only piece of three-dimensional sculpture that has surreptitiously popped up along an L.A. freeway. Last year artist Droyce installed his name in the style of the Hollywood sign on the 101 Freeway in Boyle Heights. It ran for months, until winter storms knocked the letters down.
One of the artists for Bohemia Incorporated, also known as #binc, says the sculptures are generally made from Styrofoam and painted to look like concrete.
Of the work the duo has done, it’s been the mermaid, placidly swimming, that has most resonated with rushhour drivers. “We even had someone send us a picture of it from the back of a motorcycle. That was the best,” says #binc.