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Will Power Allegory

public art, porcelain enamel steel, 168' x 14'

commissioned by Metro Art for the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station, LA Metro Regional Connector

2022

Composed as a new public allegory of Los Angeles as a site of remembrance and resistance, Will Power Allegory speaks to present and future generations about the power and politics of place. The 14 colorful panels will flank the station platform of the future Metro Little Tokyo/Arts District Station, featuring fluid vignettes of people and symbols of Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, Arts District, Skid Row, Bronzeville, and Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribe. The artwork’s iconographic program is the culmination of four years of dialogue with community culture bearers, including community organizers, residents, historians, and local artists. Through drawing, Chan translated archival and on-site research into compositions that convey the complexity and beauty of the multigenerational struggle for social justice and cultural recognition. The porcelain enamel steel panels feature important community figures such as philanthropist and healer Biddy Mason; photographer Toyo Miyatake; dancer, choreographer and teacher Fujima Kansuma; and community activist Joel Bloom. Local monuments and events are depicted, including the Aoyama Tree, Nisei Week Festival, and Skid Row’s public art and parades. Encircling the lower perimeter of the panels, a procession of protestors, ceremonial dancers, and festival revelers come together to honor and defend their communities. 

Audrey Chan, Will Power Allegory A.jpg

Installation view, photo courtesy of Metro Art

Audrey Chan, Will Power Allegory B.jpg

Installation view, photo courtesy of Metro Art

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"For L.A.’s newest underground art experience, head down to the Metro Regional Connector"

by Deborah Vankin, June 17, 2023

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Excerpt:
 

Our tour began at the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station, where Audrey Chan’s 14-panel porcelain enamel and steel mural, “Will Power Allegory,” flanks the tracks on either side of the train platform. The piece — 168 feet long and 14 feet high — presents different vignettes on each panel, populated by real people throughout the decades from city enclaves including Little Tokyo, the Arts District, Skid Row and the former Bronzeville area. Chan conducted three years of community outreach to locate these individuals; some of them are drawn from a Skid Row mural by Danny Park, owner of Skid Row People’s Market. Along the bottom, there’s a continuous procession of Angelenos marching, which binds the panels.

 

Surveying the work, Chan explains that it’s meant to “challenge historical narratives through allegories of power, place and identity.”

“I’m thinking about the legacy of the WPA and government-funded murals about the American scene,” Chan says. “I’m focusing on the resilience of communities that have been marginalized in so many ways, whether that’s the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe or the Skid Row community, which has faced displacement. Also, honoring the Asian American movement, so generations who are fighting to keep places like Little Tokyo alive.”

 

The work, inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, is intricately layered. It incorporates scans of mulberry bark paper to create a unifying, pulp-like background. Dozens of digital files went into Chan’s design, which a fabricator translated onto porcelain enamel.

 

Suddenly, a train car arrives and the bottom portion of the artwork is obscured; but larger figures at the top of the work seem to rise above the train. This is strategic, Chan says. Sightlines were a challenge in making the piece, which is surrounded by architectural columns and signage, not to mention moving subway cars. But the work is meant to be interactive and experienced in the round.

 

“I’m imagining that people going in either direction on the train are joining that procession,” Chan says. “I wanted there to be different allegorical vignettes that you could go in and out of — and you’re as much a spectator as the one being viewed.”

pdf of full article

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Press:

"Art on the Metro, Los Angeles' Moving Museum" | Chadd Scott, Forbes, July 25, 2023

"The Journey is the Exhibition: Metro Art Builds Regional Connections" | Shana Nys Dambrot, LA Weekly, July 20, 2023

"Los Angeles inaugurates three new art-filled metro stations" | Benjamin Sutton, The Art Newspaper, June 20, 2023

"For L.A.'s newest underground art experience, head down to the Metro Regional Connector" | Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2023

"L.A. Metro's Regional Connector transit project officially opens" | Simha Haddad, Los Angeles Blade, June 16, 2023

"As Opening Looms, Little Tokyo Peeks Beneath New Station" | Ellen Endo, The Rafu Shimpo, June 13, 2023

"Art That Transports" | Scarlet Cheng, Artillery Magazine, May 30, 2023

"Metro's new Regional Connector will allow riders to travel across LA County on 1 Train" | Josh Haskell, ABC 7 News, May 22, 2023

"These new DTLA Metro stops could save you 20 minutes. Take a look inside the Regional Connector" | Michael Juliano, Time Out Los Angeles, May 22, 2023

"Metro Celebrates Completion of Track Work for Regional Connector Project" | Rick Jager, The Rafu Shimpo, April 28, 2022

"Artists Chan, Rojas Tabbed to Create Metro Station Art" | Ellen Endo, The Rafu Shimpo, November 22, 2016 

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What’s Next: Five Things To Know About Regional Connector Artwork by Audrey Chan

May 2, 2020

This week, we’re going behind-the-scenes into the creative process of Audrey Chan, one of Metro’s Regional Connector Art Program artists for her porcelain enamel steel artwork Will Power Allegory created for the platform level of the future Little Tokyo/Arts District Station. 
 

  1. Inspired by obon dances, protests, and parades, Chan invites viewers to “join” the procession of community figures across 14 artwork panel assemblies. This panel (above) features FandangObon, an intercultural music and dance festival held annually in Little Tokyo. 
     

  2. Lifting up stories of the Little Tokyo, Arts District, Skid Row, Gabrieleno/Tongva, and Bronzeville communities, Chan boldly presents the triumphs and legacies of community struggle and resilience. 
     

  3. Chan’s artwork, entitled Will Power Allegory, expands the mural legacy left by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s through site-specific stories of people and place to depict “the American scene.” 
     

  4. Applying fibrous texture of kozo (mulberry) paper and large interconnected brush strokes, Chan unites the background of the monumental artwork panels. 
     

  5. Like other station artists, Chan was selected by a community-based panel, following extensive community outreach and an open call process. In addition to over three years of archival research and in-person interviews, she led an interactive community workshop during the 2017 Nisei Week Festival in which she invited community members to dream of and draw figures and symbols that hold cultural significance.

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