Allen
public art
Rider's Dream, 2003
Michael Amescua, artist
Located in the center Median of the 210 Freeway, access to the Allen Station was very dark and not very inviting. Artist Michael Amescua enlivened the area by creating a large papel picado. Spanish for perforated paper, papel picado is a craft tradition that can be traced to Pre-Columbian times, when paper-making thrived throughout Mesoamerica and the cut tree bark represented any number of human and animal spirits. Constructed of cut steel painted green and mounted flush against a yellow tile wall the artwork straddles the station entrance. The perforated paper designs are practiced in many different cultures throughout the world. Strung together like a line of flags and seemingly fragile, die paper banners are symbols of the transitory quality of life, appropriately displayed amidst the hustle of daily commuters.
Amescua's cheerfully cut designs for the entrance refer to local images: flowers, palm trees, mountains, the sun and the moon. Another papel picado on the stairwell landing, smaller at 4x8 feet in size consists of more abstracted flowers.
Once on the platform level surrounded by sunlight, passengers are met with a stainless steel season marker 10 feet tall and ten feet in diameter. Unfailingly marking the change in seasons by reflecting straight down on a designated spot on the platform at both the summer and winter equinox, the season marker represents man's need to record the passing of time. This ancient technology remains a reliable form of timekeeping and is still relevant to the technological advances explored in the neighborhood institutions of the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Pasadena City College.
