Vacuum Man : Phantom Artist Has Created Again

A phantom artist who feels that his work fills a vacuum in the San Fernando Valley art scene has struck again at a busy Studio City intersection.

Four months ago, the anonymous artist erected a fanciful five-foot collage of old tires, stereo speakers and a cascade of dinner forks around a vacuum cleaner. The city removed it.

This week, a colorful 10-foot plaster statue of a man reading a book and operating a vacuum cleaner appeared. This time, the artist included a warning to the city not to take it down. But city officials say it will be removed because the artist did not secure the required permits.

The statue stands on a grassy traffic island in the middle of the three-way intersection of Ventura Boulevard, Radford Avenue and Ventura Place. Like its predecessor, the piece includes the label “Less Material More Art.”

“Is that great or what?” said David Baker, an assistant manager of Santo Pietros, a trendy Italian restaurant whose front window overlooks the traffic island. “This town needs a hell of a lot more art like this. It’s constructive graffiti.”

Studio City musician Jeff Winston said he is surprised that the statue, which has stood in the intersection since Sunday night, hasn’t fallen victim to the other kind of graffiti. Or worse.

“I was expecting it to be decapitated the first day, but nobody’s touched it,” Winston said. “I’m glad. I like it.”

A small sign painted on the side of the sculpture asks that it not be disturbed. “If removed or vandalized, you will be towed away by the Studio City Beautification Assn.,” it says.

‘Studio City’ Sign

That warning is an apparent dig at a community group that is trying to raise about $42,000 to decorate the 20-year-old traffic island with fancy landscaping and a gold “Studio City” sign.

Beautification Assn. leader Irwin Stanton has said his group neither commissioned nor endorsed the vacuum art. Neither has the Studio City Chamber of Commerce, whose leaders say they have received complaints about it.

Los Angeles city officials say it must come down.

“It’s illegal. You can’t place things in median strips without a permit,” David Reed, assistant director of the city’s Bureau of Street Maintenance, said Thursday.

To get one of those, a sculptor would have to apply to the Bureau of Public Works and have the application approved by the Bureau of Street Maintenance, the Department of Transportation and the Board of Municipal Art Commissioners, Reed said.

But John Paul, visiting Studio City from Michigan, said he is glad that a statue with cleaner lines lasted through to the year’s end.

“We’re here to see weird art and the Rose Bowl,” Paul said.