In LA / Art’s a Trip

Meet the Artists at MTA’s Mega-Art Tour of Five New Installations on Metro Rail.

• Mega Art Tour: 20 Metro Art Docents  to lead concurrent art tours at three Metro Rail stations and on board Metro Blue Line Car #127
• Come and Go Directions: Begin at any Metro Rail Station and hop on board Metro Rail to your destination. Art Tour: Take southbound Metro Blue Line Car # 127 (departing 9:52 a.m.) from 7^th Street/Metro Center Station to Imperial/Wlmington/Rosa Parks Station, then back to Metro Center Station on the Metro Blue Line, then catch the Metro Red Line to the Wilshire/Normandie Station.
• See: GALLERY

(LOS ANGELES) Metro Art Docents will lead concurrent art tours featuring the artists of five new installations at three Metro Rail Stations and aboard Metro Blue Line train car #127 on Saturday morning, Sept. 14, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Tours are free; valid fare is required to travel on Metro Rail.

The featured artworks, along with the artists of each installation, are:

• Pathway to Freedom, five concrete and ceramic tile benches by Robin Strayhorn and Michael Massenburg at the Imperial/Wilmington/Rosa Parks Station, 11611 Willowbrook Ave. in Central Los Angeles;
• Plantings, 12 creatively lit benches by Noel Korten, Kipp Kobayashi and Marta Perlas at the 7^th Street/ Metro Center Station/Julian Dixon Station, 696 W. 7^th St., Downtown;
• Chance Encounters, a video installation by George Legrady also at the 7^th Street/Metro Center/Julian Dixon Station;
• along WILSHIRE, looking North (from Grand to Mariposa), seven illuminated photo panels by Robbert Flick at the Wilshire/Normandie Station, 3510 Wilshire Blvd., and
• untitled[gel/sound], a color and sound installation on Metro Blue Line train car # 127 by Cindy Bernard and Joseph Hammer. Route: Los Angeles <> Los Angeles. (On Sept. 14, Car #127 departs Metro Center Station at 9:52 a.m. to destinations south.)

All were commissioned as part of MTA’s extensive Metro Art program that enhances the 50 Metro Rail stations and Gateway Transit Center with the work of artists.

The Metro Art Docent Council, which consists of 36 trained volunteers from the Los Angeles region, regularly conduct tours of Metro Art and illuminate the artworks with commentary and insightful review.

The 50 Metro Rail stations and Gateway Transit Center feature the work of artists commissioned to enhance the 59.4-mile transit system in one of the country’s largest and most celebrated public art programs.

Information: (213) 922-4ART or visit Metro Art on the web at www.mta.net/metroart.

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“Pathway to Freedom” by Michael Massenburg and Robin Strayhorn is an installation of five seating benches honoring the life of Rosa Parks and the Watts community at the Metro Blue Line station named in honor of the civil rights leader. Viewing public transportation seating as symbolic of the Rosa Parks historical event, the team created five seating areas out of concrete and ceramic tile that bears images of the life and times of Rosa Parks intertwined with images from the lives of people from Watts.

“Plantings,” by the artist team of Kipp Kobayashi, Marta Perlas and Noel Korten, is an installation of seating environments on the platform level of the 7^th Street/Metro Center/Julian Dixon Metro Rail Station. Three seating areas for transit riders awaiting subway cars at the Metro Red Line Station consist of three-foot-square cubes made of durable lightweight concrete which are arranged to produce a branching ‘Y’ pattern suggestive of plants and trees. Lighting elements mounted 25 feet above the cubes project a series foliage patterns onto the seating area, giving transit riders the effect of sitting under a tree. The station, which is one of the most heavily trafficked in the Metro Rail system, is located at the intersection of the Metro Blue and Metro Red Lines in downtown Los Angeles and serves the Central Library, the historic Fine Arts Building, several large office buildings, hotels, restaurants and shopping areas as well as the Staples Arena.

“Chance Encounters,” by George Legrady, is an installation of computer-generated animations on the theme of passengers passing each other in the public space of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The installation is presented on television monitors mounted in various places on the Metro Red Line and Metro Blue Line platforms of the 7th Street/ Metro Center/ Julian Dixon Station from June to December of 2002. The artwork is presented in installments with variations introduced each month.

“along WILSHIRE, looking North (from Grand to Mariposa),” by Robbert Flick, is  a photography installation in a subway station in the heart of L.A.’s venerable Wilshire District, where the mezzanine level of the Wilshire/Normandie Metro Rail Station has been transformed into an exhibition-like space for MTA Metro Art’s “Photographic Light Boxes,” a revolving feast of art that continues with the installation and year-long exhibit of artist Robbert Flicks’ grid of images of the neighborhood above the Metro Rail route.

The exhibit, a series of seven transparencies installed in backlit display cases on the south wall of the mezzanine passageway between the station entrance and the lower boarding platform, continues through July 2003. The Wilshire/Normandie Metro Rail Station is the second-to-last stop on the Wilshire leg of the Metro Red Line Subway that begins at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and continues to Wilshire and Western.

The new exhibition-like space of the subway station departs from the traditional permanence of public artwork to offer a more finite gallery of changing photo-based exhibits. Furthermore, the exhibits will be viewed by an average of 3,300 people a day on weekdays.

“untitled[gel sound]” by Cindy Bernard and Joseph Hammer, is a visual and audio installation aboard a Metro Blue Line train, Car #127. The artwork is brought to life in the eyes and ears of transit riders as they are transported by train throughout the region. Sheets of red, green and blue theatrical gels are placed in the windows of one Metro Blue Line car. The gels transform the exterior landscape beyond, as well as the train interior for those viewing it from the outside. Inside the car, audio speakers emit a subtle low-level sound that blends with the sounds made by the train and its passengers to create a unique compos ition.