{"id":3067,"date":"2026-06-06T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/06\/tagging-along-with-the-viral-anti-trump-street-artists-turning-l-a-into-their-canvas\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T17:00:00","slug":"tagging-along-with-the-viral-anti-trump-street-artists-turning-l-a-into-their-canvas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/06\/tagging-along-with-the-viral-anti-trump-street-artists-turning-l-a-into-their-canvas\/","title":{"rendered":"\u30ed\u30b5\u30f3\u30bc\u30eb\u30b9\u3092\u30ad\u30e3\u30f3\u30d0\u30b9\u306b\u5909\u3048\u308b\u3001\u8a71\u984c\u306e\u53cd\u30c8\u30e9\u30f3\u30d7\u30fb\u30b9\u30c8\u30ea\u30fc\u30c8\u30a2\u30fc\u30c6\u30a3\u30b9\u30c8\u305f\u3061\u306b\u540c\u884c"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tAs \u30c9\u30ca\u30eb\u30c9\u30fb\u30c8\u30e9\u30f3\u30d7<\/a> finished his record-length State of the Union address earlier this year, a group of artists drove to a cul-de-sac off Echo Park Lake in L.A. and got to work. The three men dressed in loose-fitting work pants and hoodies unloaded two laser projectors (one for backup), some lenses, a laptop and battery packs onto carts and brought them to the middle of a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the 101. In the anonymity of darkness, the members of the guerilla art<\/a> collective VJayBombs set up their gear with the confidence of practice. \t<\/p>\n

\tWithin minutes, the projector was warming up and aligned with the 100-foot-tall wall of the L.A. Downtown Medical Center. Then, a final review of the video to be projected was made. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cDid you put sweat on the Statue of Liberty?\u201d Cat, a co-founder of the group, asked. \u201cThat\u2019s sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cLooks good to me,\u201d said Bev, another co-founder. He then caught himself: \u201cGo back to \u2018immigrant\u2019 for a second. \u2018Immigrant\u2019 was spelled right, yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAnd with that, the laptop was connected to the projector, and the video was put out for the world to see (or, at least drivers passing by on the freeway below). The roughly 45-second animation \u2014 projected without authorization \u2014 looped for more than 30 minutes and satirized the State of the Union. It showed Trump at a lectern holding the Statue of Liberty hostage, vomiting gold feces and wearing a medal around his neck while slogans like \u201cImmigrant Bad!\u201d and \u201cForget the Files\u201d flashed behind him.<\/p>\n

\tKen, the third co-founder, hopped a fence and walked down to the edge of the freeway itself. He whipped out his phone as cars sped by less than 10 feet from his face and filmed the projection. The video would soon go live on Instagram and TikTok, but for now, Ken was livestreaming to the group\u2019s nearly 300,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. \t<\/p>\n

\tVJayBombs formed at an apartment complex in Koreatown. Ken, Bev and Cat (all three are pseudonyms) were neighbors in the complex who all worked as filmmakers. Together, they would project visuals and other videos onto the side of the building during house parties. But the idea soon expanded. \u201cThe original concept wasn\u2019t necessarily political, it was more like, \u2018Let\u2019s do artistic imagery on buildings,\u2019 \u201d begins Ken, citing New York subway graffiti and Banksy as inspiration.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut let\u2019s say something controversial,\u201d Bev interjects. \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna say something, say something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n
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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tAn anti-ICE piece in Pico-Union in June 2025.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of VJayBombs<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tIn June 2024, after Joe Biden\u2019s disastrous debate against Trump, the artists took to a residential stretch of Koreatown to project their first piece, urging him to step down. Not a month later, they went viral with a projection referencing \u201cHawk Tuah\u201d and showing the GOP bending a knee to Trump on the side of a multistory office building in downtown L.A. overlooking the 110 freeway. \u201cThat one got a lot of traction online,\u201d says Bev. \u201cIt was the first viral one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe virality would continue to grow with each installation. In January, an anti-ICE projection was reposted by Don Lemon to millions of views, and even CNN came calling. The group\u2019s most popular video came in February \u2014 a spoof of the Super Bowl called \u201cthe Redacted Bowl,\u201d showing Trump, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates and others as football players with their stats as number of references in the Epstein files. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere are two sides of VJayBombs: There\u2019s the in-person side, which I think is super cool when you see it in person because it almost feels like seeing something that you shouldn\u2019t be seeing,\u201d explains Ken.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYou feel lucky to be there,\u201d adds Bev. \u201cLike, you caught it, and it\u2019s only up for, what, an hour?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAnd then there\u2019s the other side, which is the online push of it,\u201d continues Ken. \u201cA lot more people are going to see it online than in person, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBack at the pedestrian bridge over the freeway, a young woman appears at the edge of the bridge. The group pauses in confusion as she approaches. \u201cIt was my dream to find you guys,\u201d she announces. Was this a prank? Was this staged? \u201cI was just walking by and I saw you. I can\u2019t believe it. I\u2019m such a fan.\u201d She takes a photo with her phone of the crew.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIf you don\u2019t mind just not posting our faces,\u201d Bev says.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tLos Angeles City Hall on No Kings Day in October. <\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of VJayBombs<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tShe nods. \u201cYou\u2019re so cool,\u201d she continues, her Russian accent becoming apparent. \u201cI like how you\u2019re not scared of anything. Because, in my country, if you will say something, you will be killed that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAfter a few beats of admiring the group and the video, the woman leaves.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWell, that was interesting,\u201d says Cat. \u201cWas she just walking home and saw us? I don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d says Bev. \u201cDefinitely a first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThis story appeared in the June 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Donald Trump finished his record-length State of the Union address earlier this year, a group of artists drove to a cul-de-sac off Echo Park Lake in L.A. and got to work. The three men dressed in loose-fitting work pants and hoodies unloaded two laser projectors (one for backup), some lenses, a laptop and battery packs onto carts and brought them to the middle of a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the 101. In the anonymity of darkness, the members of the guerilla art collective VJayBombs set up their gear with the confidence of practice. Within minutes, the projector was warming up and aligned with the 100-foot-tall wall of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1824,254,173,2,255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-arts","category-donald-trump","category-hollywood","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}