Project Description
The artwork builds on Silton’s ongoing interest in the use of stripes throughout history to represent different social and cultural ideas. Inspired by the idea of transit stations as places where people from all walks of life come together. The art panels include a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln (in English and Korean) and from Gloria Anzaldúa (in Spanish and English) – languages commonly spoken in the neighborhood. Set against vibrant, multicolor stripes, these words highlight individuality and diversity while acknowledging a shared human experience.
In conjunction with her station artwork design, Silton organized a virtual poetry workshop for local Fairfax High School students led by noted poets–Olga García Echeverría, Tanya Ko Hong, AK Toney, and Terry Wolverton. Each poet engaged with English Literature students in a poetry workshop, which exposed students to the creation of affirmations through poetry, similar to the statements in Silton’s WE,OUR,US station artwork. The workshops culminated in a poem authored by each poet from ideas and words that were shared by the students.
Artist Statement
“My projects interrupt—in subtle and more overt ways and through combinations of humor, edginess and subterfuge—the assumptions we make based on our observations.”
About the Artist
SUSAN SILTON (b. 1956, Los Angeles) is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose practice engages with photography, video, installation, performance, artist’s books, sound and language. Silton’s work takes form in performative and participatory-based projects, photography, video, installation, text/audio works, and print-based projects, and presents in diverse contexts such as public sites, social network platforms, and traditional galleries and institutions. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied at Art Center College of Design. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international venues including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; the Hammer Museum; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; LA><ART; LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division); the MAK Center for Art and Architecture; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and SITE Santa Fe. She is the recipient of awards from the Art Matters Foundation, the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Durfee Foundation, Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA), the Getty/California Community Foundation, Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs, and The MacDowell Colony, among others. In 1997, Silton was commissioned for a Metro Art Bookmark series in collaboration with noted Los Angeles–based poet and educator Terry Wolverton.
Locations: Wilshire/Fairfax