Commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Los Angeles, California 15’ dia. Stainless steel nest, 2’ Cast acrylic egg with interactive LED Lighting, Glass mural 15’(h) x 46’(w) Architect: Aziz Kohan Celebrating the history of the neighborhood, as the “first landing place” for immigrants from around the world, the multiple artworks for this metro station express migration, travel, desire, and home. A large15-foot dia. stainless steel sculpture resembling a bird’s nest is suspended from a ceiling. A glowing translucent egg inside the spiraling nest pulsates to the exact rhythm of the artist’s heartbeat. The glass mural is a historic map of East Los Angeles from the time when immigrants landed in this area, with images of flying birds added by the artist.
As the project developed, Nagasawa invited language artist George Quasha to collaborate on texts for the walls. Five preverbs were selected for installation on walls, punctuated by large bird silhouettes. Nagasawa’s original theme of migration/immigration and travel expanded by way of the preverbs to include states of awareness and aspirations of mind possible in the “between state” or liminality of travel. The fve wall preverbs are;
WAKING WALKING
SKY INSIDE
EYES FLY HIGH TO NEST
MIND AWAKE AREA
WORD BIRD HOME BETWEEN US