Downtown L.A. street art

A papier-mache family sunbathes in a dirt pit on Broadway and 1st Street in downtown L.A. Street artist Calder Greenwood and his partner, only known as Wild Life, installed the sculptures there in May to call attention to the unnoticed. (Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times)

Aug. 9, 2012 2:56 PM PT

Recently, downtown has become the site of a light form of guerrilla street art that has generated much buzz and debate over its deeper meaning. It started in May when Calder Greenwood and his partner, known only as Wild Life, began collaborating on a series of papier-mache installations.

Street artist Calder Greenwood, right, and Wild Life, an anonymous artist who works with Greenwood, stand among their most recent installation of papier-mache creations: three deer perched above a parking lot on Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

Artists Calder Greenwood, right, and his partner, Wild Life, stand next to one of their installations on Spring Street. The pair collaborate on papier-mache street art that they put up in downtown Los Angeles. (Katie Falkenberg / For The Times)

A papier-mache surfer falls into the L.A. River near the 6th Street Bridge. Its creators, Calder Greenwood and a man known only as Wild Life, posed the surfer and similar papier-mache sculptures in areas of downtown Los Angeles that are often walked by but unnoticed, such as vacant lots. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)