Indecline, stylized as INDECLINE, is an American

art collective An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the needs ...

. Members have said that the collective was formed in 2001 and is decentralized, with "dozens" of members in affiliated groups in several US states and a few foreign countries, and have characterized it as " nunderground movement factivists, musicians, graffiti writers, ndphotographers".

Projects

''Bumfights: A Cause For Concern''

In 2002

Ryen McPherson ''Bumfights'' is a video series produced by Indecline Films. The debut release titled ''Bumfights Vol. 1: A Cause for Concern'' features primarily high school fights caught on tape and homeless men (most notably Rufus Hannah and Donnie Brennan) i ...

, Daniel Tanner, and others operating as Indecline Films produced the first video in the ''

Bumfights ''Bumfights'' is a video series produced by Indecline Films. The debut release titled ''Bumfights Vol. 1: A Cause for Concern'' features primarily high school fights caught on tape and homeless men (most notably Rufus Hannah and Donnie Brennan) ...

'' series, ''Bumfights: A Cause for Concern''. They subsequently took down the Indecline Films website, and have said they sold the rights to the series to two investors.

''Dying for Work''

In August 2012, the group installed a billboard on

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexico–United States border, Mexican border i ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

with ''Dying for Work'' in black lettering on a white background and a dummy hanging from it by a noose; a companion billboard, also with a hanged man, read "Hope you're happy Wall St."

''Largest Piece of Illegal Graffiti''

In April 2015, eight people spent six days creating the largest piece of illegal

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

in the world: "This land ''was'' our land", painted on a disused military

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

().

''Rape Mural''

In October 2015, in response to

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's calling illegal immigrants "rapists", the group spray-painted a mural depicting Trump with the slogan "¡Rape Trump!" on an old border wall on US territory approximately a mile from the

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

airport.

''Hollywood Walk of Fame''

In March 2016, members of the group glued names of African-Americans killed by police over names on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

, and also glued the Indecline logo to the stars.

''Donald Trump Statues''

On August 18, 2016, using industrial epoxy, the group glued life-sized nude statues of Trump to the sidewalk in five cities:

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

''Rail Beast''

In September 2017 Indecline broke into

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

's Milford Utah yard and vandalized several engines parked on the south end of the yard at

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

Siding. One of them was painted like a tiger. Union Pacific Railroad Police has placed a $300.000 bounty on Indecline for vandalism and has moved some of the engines stored at Lund to Warm Springs Yard in Salt Lake City Utah. The engine in question UP #2519 was taken out of storage at Lund to nearby Milford and the graffiti was stripped off with primer before the engine was sent to Jenks Shops in

North Little Rock, Arkansas North Little Rock is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, across the Arkansas River, Arkansas from Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock in the central part of the state. The population was 64,591 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. In 2 ...

for a full overhaul. The engine returned to service in 2019 and is still running but now has a flag decal on the long hood.

''Ku Klux Klowns''

In August 2017,

Heather Heyer The Charlottesville car attack was a white supremacist terrorist attack perpetrated on August 12, 2017, when James Alex Fields, Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlott ...

was murdered by a white supremacist at the 2017 “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville. In response, Indecline installed eight

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of hanging clowns dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan in Richmond's Bryan Park. A sign on one of the effigies read: “If attacked by a mob of clowns, go for the juggler". A video published online by Indecline includes footage of the clowns being assembled and mounted at dusk by people wearing masks. The video includes dialogue from a decades-old episode of the “ Superman” radio show that ridiculed the KKK, interspersed with a Klan anthem featuring the lyrics: “Stand up and be counted/show that world that you’re a man … join the Ku Klux Klan".

''Freedom Kick''

In September 2020, the group began a project alongside Spanish artist Eugenio Merino called ''Freedom Kick'', where they order

silicone A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer made up of siloxane (−R2Si−O−SiR2−, where R = organic group). They are typically colorless oils or rubber-like substances. Silicones are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medicine, cooking ...

replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

s of the head of famous world leaders and distribute them around the world to be used as

soccer ball A football (also known as football ball, soccer ball, or association football ball specifically in the United Kingdom) is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called " ...

s. The games are recorded and uploaded to their Instagram account. Some of the world leaders included

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

and

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...

. After releasing Bolsonaro's video, members of the group received death threats.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official website
21st-century American artists American artist groups and collectives