Where TVs get with a different program

Like big, boxy mushrooms, dozens of derelict TVs have popped up again on a grassy hillside in Silver Lake, their white-painted screens bearing slogans slapped on in red: “Ask Why,” “Stop Cellphone Abuse,” “More More More,” “Angels Are for Real,” “This Too Will Pass.”

The seemingly random expressions, of politics, whimsy, indignation and melancholy, began creeping across the hillside at Fletcher and Riverside drives in the fall, their numbers increasing over time until someone knocked them over about a week ago. Almost immediately, Tomas Hinds, 38, of Hollywood, was mounting his works back on their pedestals again.

Hinds said he thought one of his messages must have prompted the vandalism. He began installing the TVs at the end of October and photographing the process, he said, as a “political and social statement.”

“I just wanted to be a voice, an urban voice, because I feel that this world is in trouble. And I picked that spot because it has those big stones on it that are essentially sculpture bases, and it’s a kind of benign and beautiful space.” The TVs sit on concrete trestle footings that once supported a bridge on the historic Red Car trolley line. The blocks -- called “Silver Lake Stonehenge” by some -- are scattered over the slope, which rises behind an Arco station’s minimart.

Locals seem generally appreciative of the installation, which begins a few yards above street level.”It’s true guerrilla art,” said Diane Edwardson, a member of Community Residents’ Assn. for Parks, a nonprofit organization working to preserve the Corralitas Red Car property, where the trestle footings lie. “In this neighborhood, we’re tolerant of art in whatever form it comes in.”

Felix Martinez, 13, who lives nearby, has been an observer since the first few TVs appeared. “Some really move me,” he said, pointing to “War Co$t$ Lives” and “Pray for Peace.” He added, “I guess TV has found a meaning.”