Photos by Brian Addison.

They were first noticed by a Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum employee this past Saturday, and have since remained a mystery: sitting in a row in the middle of Alamitos between 6th and 7th was a line of vacuum cleaners, painted silver.

The logical conclusion, if you were a PIEAM employee, and knew nothing about the origins of the silver vacuums, would be that the Museum of Latin American Art had something to do with the contemporary, Jeff Koons-like installation. But they are just as much in the dark as anybody.

“It’s kind of a cool installation,” said Susan Golden, Director of Media & Public Relations at MOLAA, “but the artist/s remain a mystery.”

Could it be commentary on the need to clean up one of Long Beach’s most dangerous intersections? Perhaps that the pace needs to be swiftly picked up in turning the infamous intersection into a park?

Or maybe it’s nothing more than a little bit of cultural- and mystery-driven fun?

Either way, we’re down with the impromptu art installation. In fact, we are looking forward to seeing more, should the mystery artist/s continue his/her/their work. Hopefully they’re not swept up by City officials any time soon, so more people can check the mystery vacuums out.

City officials have yet to return comment on the variety of painted Hoovers and Dyson look-alikes (we suspect they’re look-alikes, anyway—those are really expensive vacuums).

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