Fentanyl Players Stage Historical Tableaux Across San Francisco
The Silent Company
Five people in Union Civil War uniforms on a sidewalk; four lean forward on upright rifles with heads bowed, one bends at the waist with a rifle on the ground; brick wall and street behind them.
SAN FRANCISCO — A small art collective calling itself the Fentanyl Players is staging still-life photography across sidewalks and parks by costuming people locked in the city’s familiar standing fentanyl stupor. Members of the troupe drape period clothing, adjust props, and tuck symbolic objects into subjects’ arms and waistlines while the subjects remain upright, motionless, and unaware. The documented tableaux appear to be homages to famous works of art, from paintings and sculpture to scenes out of classic literature.
The group refers to the figures as “found statues.” No instruction is required beyond fabric placement, with organizers noting that subjects maintain their own balance. A Civil War infantry study staged in South of Market featured men in Union jackets holding replica rifles, their chins sunk to their chests, as if taking a moment to rest between periods of long march and battle with the Confederates.
One photograph depicts a Russian harvest tableau assembled near Civic Center: figures in coarse linen and sashes, with wheat bundled into their locked arms. Organizers said one subject maintained posture for nearly forty minutes, a duration that provided optimal conditions for natural-light studies and fixed-frame composition.
Harvest Without End
Five people in peasant clothing on patchy grass, each holding a large wheat bundle to their chest with heads bowed; a large columned stone building and city dome behind them.
A third installation, photographed beside a tagged metal gate off Market Street, restaged the Pietà. A woman in biblical drapery and a deep blue velvet cloak cradled a slumped man in a dirty T-shirt, cargo shorts, and beat-up sneakers, his shins marked by open sores. A black embroidered hat rested on the sidewalk. Behind them, a man scrolled on a phone, a woman pushed a cart of belongings; the misery of normal life on the street continued in the American style.
Pietà Moderna
A woman in biblical robes and a blue velvet cloak sits on a dirty sidewalk cradling an unconscious man in a T-shirt, cargo shorts, and sneakers; a black embroidered hat lies nearby; graffiti gate, street tents, and indifferent passersby behind them.
City officials say the installations are difficult to regulate, describing them as temporary, non-obstructive, and visually consistent with existing street conditions. Pedestrians have responded by pausing to take photos before moving on, uncertain whether they have encountered public art, a medical emergency, or a historical reenactment that lost its funding. Upcoming scenes will include the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Last Supper.
A later plate restaged Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on a sidewalk: two men under blankets, index fingers nearly touching, with a painted panel of God and attendants propped behind them where the original fresco’s sky would be. The gap between their hands remained open.
The Spark Deferred
Two men lie on a sidewalk under blankets, arms extended so their index fingers nearly touch; behind them a wooden panel shows a painted figure of God with attendants from the Creation of Adam; bags, a water jug, and a walker handle nearby.