These Realistic-Looking Hooded Figures Are Freaking Out People in California

The figures are public artwork called “The Caretakers."

Residents of Laguna Beach, California, have mixed feelings about five, hooded statues that appeared outside City Hall this week.

The figures are part of a public artwork called “The Caretakers” by Mark Jenkins and Sandra Fernandez, and their realistic look has some people complaining. 

The five figures are dressed in gray sweatshirts with hoods pulled over their “faces” and khaki pants. They’re all doing various things from “vacuuming” to shooting a plunger from a bow and arrow.

“They look like terrorists and it really freaks people out at night,” one resident told KCBS.

The work depicts activities in the age of global warming

“The characters faces are covered from the sun,” city officials wrote on Facebook. “The surreal installation has a character toasting his hotdog in the sun, playing horseshoes, a character vacuuming the lawn and a reference to the defiance of William Tell and the apple on his son’s head.”

The display will be in place until Oct. 18. 

On the Facebook post, some residents said they liked the art but it was not the proper location for a work of its kind, while others said they supported the city’s decision to try something different. 

“The artist did a good job, everyone is talking about it, exactly the point,” another user wrote.

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