According to the artist: "the art program for Pershing Square is based on seeing the park as an emerald cut oasis, multifaceted like the City of Los Angeles itself. Reflections of the City include a material interruption in the paving pattern in the form of a conceptual 'fault line', referencing not only the region’s phenomenal seismic activity but also dramatic events sited in Pershing Square in John Fante’s seminal novel set in Los Angeles, Ask the Dust (1939). Terrazzo versions of constellations visible in Southern California's night skies reflect not only the stars in Hollywood's 'Walk of Fame' but also LA movie star-gazing. This concept is continued in the three telescopes with views of three eras 1888, 1943 and the present. There is a small orange grove planted in recognition of the historically significant Wolfskill grove planted nearby in 1841. Wolfskill’s oranges were the first to be commercially exported from Los Angeles, and, by 1857, Wolfskill’s grove became the largest in the United States. A quote describing Pershing Square as a microcosm of Los Angeles by writer Carey McWilliams is incised on the bench back near the fountain. Porcelain postcards from the past welcome today's visitors on a bench near 5th & Hills Streets, adjacent to the Metro Red Line Station."
Also available for public viewing are monuments and artifacts that were re-sited near one another to provide a glimpse of the types of public artworks that were once situated throughout Pershing Square. Courtesy of CRA/LA.
