Project Description

River of Time (2015) by Cha-Rie Tang pays homage to Monrovia’s architectural heritage and natural scenery. In a landscaped area before the entry ramps, a seven-foot-high sculptural rock—shaped by river water over thousands of years—is encircled by a “pool” of handmade glass bricks set in a concrete slab. Continuing the allusion to water, bands of tiles with a fluid, blue-green glaze are inset in the ramps leading to the two platforms and in the adjacent parking structure. Hundreds of relief tiles featuring Arts and Crafts–era designs enhance the bases of the canopy columns on the platforms. Many of these tiles, all crafted by hand, were created from impressions taken of tiles at local homes and nearby landmarks, such as the historic Santa Fe train depot.

Artist Statement

“We are travelers, both literally and metaphorically. We experience the world depending on our frame of reference and by the time we have. On foot or by train, looking down or looking ahead, close up or from afar we bring ourselves, our histories with us.”

About the Artist

Portrait of Cha-Rie Tang

CHA-RIE TANG (b. 1951, Taiwan, China) earned a Bachelor of Science in art and design from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Architecture from the University of Colorado Boulder. She cofounded her Pasadena-based studio Direct Imagination in 1984, where she designs and creates original and reproduction hand-carved ceramic tiles, kiln-fired glass sculptures, architectural installations and bas relief murals. Tang has completed a number of public commissions locally, including artworks for Pasadena’s Area Rapid Transit System, Exposition Park–Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Library and Los Angeles County’s Hall of Administration Executive Office.