Lincoln Heights / Cypress Park
public art
Water Street: River of Dreams, 2003
Cheri Gaulke, artist
Artist Cheri Gaulke's concept for the Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park Station honors the location of the station. It is near the confluence of the Arroyo Seco and the Los Angeles River. With that as a reference she forms a sense of connection between the Gabrielino (Tongva) Indians who once lived here and a flowing landscape that creates a metaphoric circulatory system of water, of development, of people in the past, and of trains and commuters. An old street sign found at the site inspired the title of the artwork, "Water Street." The artwork includes a sculpture of a Tongva woman gathering river water, a dry riverbed of arroyo stones, river boulders, a "story fence," coyote tracks throughout the station, and historic photographs depicting the way this site once looked.
The dry riverbed of arroyo stones runs between two staircases leading from the parking lot to the station platform. At the top of the station surrounded by river boulders Gaulke has designed a freestanding bronze sculpture of a Tongva woman who is drawing water from the river. Based on a historic photograph she carries a typical Tongva basket so tightly woven it holds water. Near her is a bronze text panel with the 1949 quote from Ralph Hancock's "Fabulous Boulevard," "The Indian woman who dipped water from the zanja madre (mother ditch) and carried it to the several households was the city's first municipal employee, the city's first waterworks."
The "story fence" is four feet tall and 35 feet long. The copper fence has text cut out revealing the landscape beyond the fence. The text, to be read from the train and platform, is an old story told by the Tongva Indians in which a wily coyote challenges the river to race. Upon closer inspection the viewer sees the smaller text an image panels that illuminate the history of the area.
Throughout the station, along the platform and on stairs coyote tracks are embedded in the concrete. Enhancing the overall concept of landscape, the impressions will remind viewers of both the wildlife that existed in the area and the commuter race that endures. In addition, occasional leaf prints can be seen in the concrete walkway to the platform. In an effort to honor the e original landscape native plants including sycamore and California oaks were included in the landscape design.
