For L.A. Material, Anna Holmes writes about an anonymous artist whose canvas is Griffith Park. His creation is “The Hiding Man,” a figure said to live in, around, and underneath the park and the L.A. River, and who is described as “a burn victim with great cheekbones, or Frankenstein as interpreted by Pablo Picasso in his Cubist phase.” The artist’s other creation, the “Narrator,” warns the public about this man via strange, grammatically incorrect signs—some that resemble official signage—posted around the park and Eastside neighborhoods. “A HIDEN MAN DO WATCH YOU,” one reads. Holmes writes a quirky story about guerrilla art, Los Angeles lore, and one person’s eccentric love letter to a city park.
You can find the artist’s work all over the Eastside: In Silver Lake (where a sign says DO NOT ACT LIKE A TRASH NO LOUD NO SPIT NO TOUCHING NO FIRE NO LITTER NO DRUG A HIDING MAN WILL GRAB YOU), in Los Feliz (where one sign reads HE DO SEE YOU HE TAKE PICTURES A HIDING MAN WILL GRAB ON YOU SOON YOU WILL BE GOT), in Atwater (where a sign warns NO DRUGS OR BMS). There are (were?) a few in Highland Park and a couple in Burbank and Toluca Lake, too. Homages to his work have also started to appear: Behind the bar at the hot new Los Feliz cocktail bar Vandell hangs a painting of Griffith Park which features a tiny Hiding Man.
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