TIME AND PRESENCE - Transit

 

METRO ART, Los Angeles, CA​. Time and Presence​. Pierced and painted steel canopies about life on earth before man - for the Staples Center/Convention Center, light rail station. $50,000. 1991.

 

GOAL

 

Time and Presence was commissioned at the time of the Rodney King race riots, and I wanted to explore that issue in my work.  This station is the first (or last) METRO Blueline station above ground, and so for the ridership, they are entering the light (or about to plunge into the dark tunnels below Los Angeles).  My goal was to address that question of light and shadow, passively, with the sun, and kinetically, with the riders.  

 

DESCRIPTION

 

Two pierced metal canopies overhead, cast light and shadow on the trains and platforms of the solar system (for how small we are)  Pangea (for how all the earth is one large landmass), a turtle - for life in the oceans before man, and an orchid - for life on the earth before man.  The first of my Metro stations, the line runs to Long Beach where Ah HA Shoreline Stroll greets the rider, and east on the Goldline Irwindale, where my work celebrating the Hispanic families thrive, in the Jardin De Roca.   

 

Team

Robin Brailsford

Help

Dan Fuller

Wick Alexander

Fritz Leibhardt

John Schenck - Project Manager

 

Fabrication - Brian Thomas of Thomas Marine

Engineering - Paul Benton

Client  LA METRO