Peace Activist Will Fast for Anti-Nuke Sculpture

, 68, will chain himself to a threatened public art sculpture Tuesday to announce a 10-week liquid-only fast to support the artwork made by a Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist. 

City leaders have given the communityplanted outside the the Civic Auditorium, and which has corroded in the salty air. They say there's not enough money in city coffers to save it.

"Rubin will chain himself to the chain link warning fence the City erected around 'Chain Reaction,' as part of their testing and structural evaluation process," Rubin said in a press release. "The chaining is meant to symbolize the community commitment to saving the iconic sculpture."

The 26-foot tall sculpture was installed at The Civic 21 years ago as a "statement of peace," despite opposition from some residents.

It was cast by Los Angeles Times cartoonist Paul Conrad, who died in 2010, won Pulitzers in 1964, 1971 and 1984 for his "fiercely confrontational" political cartoons. He sculpted "Chain Reaction" during the Cold War as the West and East raced to bolster their weapons chests, escalating fears of a repeat of the 1945 nuclear attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Rubin will continue his fast through Sept. 4, the second anniversary of Conrad's death. to keep the sculpture from being decommissioned from the city's public art collection.