It’s 8 a.m. in San Francisco’s famous Castro district, masked men in construction uniforms are carrying a 6 foot 5 inch object under a blue tarp. The mysterious men begin to spread a layer of industrial strength epoxy to the sidewalk, they glue the object to the ground, and remove the tarp. They swiftly walk away and disappear into the gathering crowd.

It’s August 18, 2017 and the same operation is being executed at the exact time in five major metropolitan cities across the United States. Underneath the tarp, erected (no pun intended) a statue of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump naked equipped with a pot belly, varicose veins, a constipated facial expression, minuscule penis, and no testicles. At the base of the statue is a plaque that says The Emperor Has No Balls.

The hit-and-run art bandits responsible for the spectacle are the non-profit anarchist art collective known as Indecline, and it’s not the first time they’ve used unconventional methods to make a controversial statement publicizing what they believe to be injustices in America today.

Indecline began in 2001 and is comprised of graffiti writers, photographers, filmmakers, and artists who focus on the social, ecological, and economic injustices carried out by American governments, corporations, and law enforcement agencies. Indecline has a clear message and they use controversial, provocative, and thought provoking methods to get their statements across.

With our modern landscape of easily accessible content, the social media hivemind, competitive news outlets, and the reality that anything posted on the internet will forever remain immortal, it’s easy to for your statement to be buried. Indecline knows that the only way to expose and publicize messages is through elaborate, unconventional and not always politically correct methods such as altering billboards, commissioning murals, street art, and film.

“We’re not curing cancer, but we’re also not causing it.” a representative from Indecline who wishes to remain anonymous tells me. “We are willing to receive any and all critical onslaught for the sake of saying we just put something out that invaded your life and demand you to think about the issue.”

Let’s rewind to the mid 1990’s, the internet is still in it’s infancy, social media isn’t conceptualized yet, and underground content is truly underground. It’s a culture where one has to be “in the know” to gain access to alternative content.

Whether through an independent zine, underground video stores, a fuzzy cassette tape recording of a buzz-worthy indie band, or a copy of a banned book that has been shared so many times it’s tearing from the seams. Homemade VHS tapes were shared, reproduced and spread with the same exclusionary “in the know” methods.

Ryen Mcpherson was your average rebellious 1990’s teenager, he spent his afternoons skateboarding, ditching school, reading Howard Zinn, and questioning authority figures. He hung out with people from the local homeless community, most notably two men named Rufus Hannah and Donnie Brennan.

A mutually beneficial relationship arose as Mcpherson gave them money in exchange for alcohol and company. Mcpherson inherited his family’s old camcorder and when he wasn’t filming skateboarding videos, he was recording the ‘crazy shit’ that Hannah and Brennan would do for money, these recordings became what we know now as “Bumfights”. “Bumfights” exploded as a viral underground shockumentary that was mass produced and sold across the world by a teenager in his bedroom.

Because of its controversial and exploitative content “Bumfights” is banned in a number of countries including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada. Online auction website eBay bans listings which contain copies of the video, felony and misdemeanor charges were filed against McPherson for his involvement in the videos, which he was later acquitted for.

“Bumfights” was the first official Indecline production, and despite the cringe worthy, dehumanizing and immoral actions depicted, there was a social message they wanted to get across.

“There was no precedent for a video like that and no one knew what to think, they just saw homeless people and freaked out.” said the Indecline representative.

“We weren’t ever given a chance to say ‘Oh, we’re actually trying to raise awareness through this video, shock the hell out of you and make it so you stop and say what the hell is going on.’”

Inspired by 1970’s American radical left-wing organization The Weather Underground who famously took part in breaking LSD proponent and psychologist Timothy Leary out of jail, organizing a riot that coincided with the Chicago Seven trials, and bombing government buildings, Indecline uses similar radical tactics to make their messages known.

“You didn’t know where they were going to be, and what they were gonna do, and when they show up, it’s a huge fucking deal because something blew up.”

The difference between The Weather Underground and Indecline is that the latter can take advantage of the tools available to them in our modern times, the main tool being social media. With an Instagram following of 42,000 and millions of views on their YouTube channel, they create the narrative.

“It allows us to do a lot more because we are not burdened to tell these long form stories or produce three years worth of content and put out a DVD.” said the representative “We’ve had years to perfect the perfect two minute video.”

Indecline has benefited from the invention of social media because the attention span of their demographic is not going to sit down for 45 minutes anymore. “In the beginning we never thought about running time, we would throw up whatever. Now if I put up a video that’s over three minutes, I think it’s seriously going to hinder the views. But hopefully the content is good enough.” he said.

Savvy branding and anonymity are important aspects for Indecline so they can maintain an “omni-presence”. They often uses illegal measures when executing their projects, staying anonymous keeps them out of trouble with the law, and enables them to sneakily execute their projects. They believe that having a spokesperson would distract people from the message.

“We create something, leave, document it, and we are out of there. You can have it, you can trash it, we’ve done our job. As long as it’s documented, it’s immortal.”

For the last 16 years Indecline has kept us on our toes, and whether you’re a devoted follower, or you’ve never heard of them, there is a high probability that you are familiar with at least one of their projects. In 2015, Indecline commissioned the largest piece of illegal graffiti in the world, it took six days of work, over 250 gallons of paint, and it’s half a mile wide. Painted on an abandoned military runway in the Mojave Desert it reads “This land was our land,” a tribute to Woody Guthrie’s famous protest song.

In 2016, members of the group glued names of African-Americans killed by police over celebrity’s name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it was their statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

In response to the results of the 2016 presidential election, Indecline created the world’s largest blood mural.

“We contacted musicians, artists, activists, and graffiti writers. All these people we know who occupy these realms of society, and brought them to an undisclosed location in L.A. where we had registered nurses pull blood from them.”

The mural is titled Rise Up Young Blood. It’s a reimagination of the iconic image of Betsy Ross sewing the original American flag, this version includes people of diverse ethnicities, religions and sexualities, sewing the flag in unity. Indecline used their media savvy and name recognition to release the project.

“We leaked a photo to make it look like we were doing something vehemently anti-Trump.” said the representative. “But when it came out and we were doing something with this cultural and racial unity right after the election was our way of saying ‘we’ll bleed for this and we’ll do whatever it takes to heal our country.”

It’s the most hippie thing they’ve ever done in terms of message, but also the most punk rock in terms of execution.

The next project on Indecline’s agenda: the water crisis in Flint, MI. but we won’t know their tactics until they decide to release it. They believe Flint has been swept under the rug, and that many of us are unaware that the crisis has yet to be resolved. By releasing a project after so long after it was initially publicized, they are making sure their message won’t be swept under the rug. “We will contact media outlets and say ‘this isn’t what you’re covering right now, but you’ve should be. We’ve done the work for you and we’ve created the message. It would do everyone a lot of good if you run this.’”

Over the years they have forged relationships with journalists because when they do a project that they feel is media worthy, they don’t have to put it online and “hope someone discovers it.” They have contacts for many media outlets, and before they release a project they send out press kits and photos to every outlet they have access to. Often they’ll use an exclusive partner like Vice or Uproxx and send them a narrative. It’s rare to have somebody physically there because of the anonymity they like to maintain. “We exploit them the same way they exploit us and use them to get our message out. It’s a huge tactic.”

The most successful part of Indecline is that they can break into certain areas of different cultures, educational institutions, or museums where they wouldn’t think they have fans, but depending on the project and the message, they collaborate and talk to more people who are empathetic towards their mission. Everyone in the initiative has a talent, and has things they want to fight against. Whether it’s via canvases, billboard liberations, abandoned factories, or guerilla theater, they are going to use their resources to go and fight.