KEN GONZALES-DAY

“Rodin once said, ‘I invent nothing, I rediscover.’ I believe [my] project will offer visitors a chance to discover and rediscover some of the city’s richest cultural assets, as well as to further position Los Angeles within an increasingly global context.” (Artist statement, Ken Gonzales-Day)

Metro Art commissioned artist Ken Gonzales-Day to create Urban Excavation: Ancestors, Avatars, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Casts, Copies, Deities, Figures, Funerary Objects, Gods, Guardians, Mermaids, Metaphors, Mothers, Possessions, Sages, Spirits, Symbols, and Other Objects, a site-specific, architecturally integrated artwork at the station that draws from LACMA’s global permanent collection.

Inspired by the concept of moving both body and mind, and by the station itself as an excavation site, Gonzales-Day’s glass murals bring riders on a journey across time and continents. Larger-than-life images of works from LACMA’s collection create an immersive environment that blurs the line between past and present and encourages viewers to think about museum collections and their connections to the outside world in unexpected ways. 

“Tar (asphalt) and oil transformed the city and its fluidity can also be found in Peter Zumthor’s design for the new LACMA campus, which literally flows over Wilshire Boulevard,” said Gonzales-Day about the conceptual starting point of the work. “With this in mind, I proposed to ‘excavate’ or photograph works from LACMA’s permanent collection and incorporate them into the design. I chose LACMA’s collection because just as Metro transports riders across the region, LACMA transports visitors across time and space through its rotating exhibitions and encyclopedic collection.”

To create Urban Excavation, Gonzales-Day reviewed more than 4,000 sculptural objects from LACMA’s collection, selecting works that represent a wide range of collection areas, including African Art, Art of the Ancient Americas, Art of the Pacific, Chinese and Korean Art, Egyptian Art, European Painting and Sculpture, Japanese Art, and Southeast Asian Art. Working closely with LACMA’s Contemporary Art department, the artist refined the selection to more than 70 objects, which he photographed, arranged in groups, and was then fabricated as a one-of-a-kind, immersive glass installation. Sited along the concourse level walls of Wilshire/Fairfax Station, Urban Excavation presents objects ranging from burial figures from Mexico, dating from 200 BCE–500 CE, to bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Emerging from a dark background, the forms appear as if rising from beneath the surface—unearthed through travel, movement, and time.

“I hope that Urban Excavation will allow visitors a chance to rediscover LACMA, and some of L.A. County’s richest cultural treasures, for many years to come,” said Gonzales-Day. “As an educator, I also believe the work might serve a more practical function and help introduce visitors to the collection before entering, or after leaving the museum, as well as to remind riders of the many rich cultural institutions available to them.”