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 LaBeouf, 27, a former Disney star who later became known as
the lead of the "Transformers" film franchise, set up an art
installation entitled #IAMSORRY at a Los Angeles gallery, to run
daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time (1900 to 0200 GMT) until
Sunday with free admission.
About 30 people were lined up to enter the gallery one by one,
where each attendee is asked to pick one item from a table that
held a wrench, a vase of flowers, a bottle of bourbon and
Hershey's chocolate kisses among other items.
Gallery visitor Maycie Thornton said she had taken a flower from
the vase and then was escorted through a black curtain into a
dark room, where LaBeouf was sitting with a paper bag with the
words "I Am Not Famous Anymore" on his head. He wore a similar
bag bearing the same words at the Berlin Film Festival premiere
of his latest film "Nymphomaniac."
"You can still see his eyes, and it was like, it was kind of wet
under, it looked like he had been crying and his eyes were like
so sad. So I just immediately got so awkward, because you're
like trying to talk to someone who is not talking back to you,
in this room by yourself," Thornton said.
Another excited fan, Alex Schlagel, asked the actor to remove
the paper bag from his head, and then told him how much she
enjoyed his films, before leaving him her phone number. LaBeouf
does not verbally communicate with the attendees.
"It was weird to be excited because he was so sad, and then I
didn't know what else to say, so I asked if I could take his bag
off," she said.
LaBeouf's art project has been compared to that of actor Joaquin
Phoenix, who in 2009 displayed erratic behavior and an unkempt
appearance at public events. Phoenix announced his retirement
from acting to pursue a career as a hip hop artist. The stunt
was later revealed to be the subject of Casey Affleck's
mockumentary "I'm Still Here."
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 Whether LaBeouf is transitioning away from movies to become a
conceptual artist or just finding novel ways to drum up press for
his film work, the media have been amused and perplexed by his
recent behavior.
The art project comes after the actor was accused of plagiarizing
the work of little-known graphic novelist Daniel Clowes in his short
film "Howard Cantour.com" in December.
The actor took to his Twitter feed to apologize to Clowes, saying,
"In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in
the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation."
Since then, the actor made numerous more attempts at apologies and
cryptic tweets about creativity. In January, the actor declared he
was "retiring from all public life" with the message "#stopcreating."
For nearly a month, his Twitter feed read, "I AM NOT FAMOUS
ANYMORE."
On Tuesday, the actor tweeted "#IAMSORRY."
(Reporting by Bob Mezan; writing by Piya
Sinha-Roy; editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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