Public Places : Art With Altitude

When the city’s newest rail line, the Metro Green Line, leaves the monotony and noise of the Century freeway and the tracks soar above the industrial rooftops of El Segundo, the commuter ride becomes an E-ticket. There are some fine views as the train snakes around gentle curves, but the point of the trip is the five stations on the end of the line.

Whimsical, thought-provoking art is built in, a result of artist collaboration right from the planning stage on these stations. This is the first glimpse of an expressive public art program that’s being integrated into the construction of the massive rail transit system, and which will be seen in future stations.

The program is funded by a one-half percent setaside of construction funds for each station, one-half to one-fourth the usual public art setaside in other cities.

MAYA EMSDEN has been director of Metro Art for the Metropolitan Transit Authority since coming from the New York City Arts for Transit program in 1989. She spoke with Public Places columnist Jane Spiller.

Question: What’s new about the the art program for the Green Line?

Answer: On the five stations at the western end of the line, artists collaborated with architects and engineers on the design of the stations. It’s the first realization of our goal of involving artists early in the process. Interesting things can happen when you have multiple disciplines working together.

You can see the difference from Red Line, Blue Line, and other Green Line stations art is much better integrated. All the Hollywood stations will be like this also, but you won’t see them until they come on line in 1998.

Q: What can riders expect to see on a Green Line art tour?

A: There are so many layers of meaning at each station each time I go out I discover something new. To see the most you should get off and look around the lower plaza levels as well as the platforms. Things happen on the walls and the stairs and with the landscaping.

At the Marine/Redondo station, artist Carl Cheng collaborated with the architect to create an underwater, other-worldly atmosphere with a blue glass canopy. Video monitors on the platform provide data from outer space, and a special lens in the platform provides a kaleidoscopic view of traffic passing below.

Douglas/Rosecrans, the next station, has an industrial look to it. You’re up high and you’re looking out over the tops of buildings which have these wonderful air ventilator shafts and big fans. The artist, Renee Petropoulos, took one of those shafts and made it 20 feet tall and put it on top of the station. She appropriated things from the landscape. And all the hand-rails have eyeballs, which perhaps suggests the work is about viewing, really looking at things.

There’s a giant hand at the El Segundo/Nash station, a humorous reference to aerospace and the defense industry. It’s right next to Hughes, which is high-security and where they take themselves very seriously. Artist Daniel Martinez has the hand launching a “paper” airplane.

At Mariposa/Nash, Charles Dickson was interested in the history of the community, which has worked for a long time to preserve the El Segundo blue butterfly. Mariposa means butterfly in Spanish. There are benches shaped like butterflies, and it’s also wonderful reference to another form of transportation, flight, and again, the aerospace industry.

1950s living room furniture is the motif at the Aviation/I-105 station. Artist Richard Turner visited people in the neighborhood and noticed that everything in their homes was ‘50s. He loves that era. He sketched people’s furniture and then made it out of concrete. He’s interested in the difference between public and private space. Throughout our system, the seating is back-to-back, so people don’t have to talk to each other. Richard thought that was weird, not to speak to somebody who’s sitting right next to you. He put the chairs in a conversational grouping so people talk all the time. They sit there and cross their legs as though they’re at home and sit there reading the paper--it’s funny.

Public Places writer Jane Spiller welcomes suggestions for places of interest. Contact her at jane.spiller@latimes.com