NEON SCULPTURE ILLUMINATES THE VAN NUYS FLYAWAY BUS TERMINAL
(Los Angeles, California – April 7, 2009) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, announces the completion of a new public artwork installed at the Van Nuys FlyAway Bus Terminal. The sculpture, constructed of honeycomb aluminum with brass and copper laminates and neon ribbons of light, measures 114 feet long and was designed by Los Angeles-based artist Lili Lakich.
Titled Flyaway, the sculpture is composed of two figures: Pegasus, the mythical winged horse, and an abstracted human flying figure. The curving wings of Pegasus radiate outward 12 feet and inside its body are animated hands, which wave goodbye – or hello. On its torso are two neon crackle tubes, creating an alternating energy field. At the base of Pegasus’ body are abstracted wheels, as if it could be also be carried by bus.
The flying human figure incorporates two actual movie reels and is connected to Pegasus by streamers of neon and argon tubing. The entire sculpture is mounted onto 14-inch by 29-feet H-beams attached to the concrete columns that support the FlyAway Bus Terminal roof. More than 700 feet of neon tubing powered by 200,000 volts illuminates the artwork, which is lit 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Lakich was awarded the commission to design the artwork through a Request for Qualifications issued in 2005 to over 2,000 artists by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs through its Public Art Division’s Percent-for-Art Program. A selection panel comprised of an artist and three community members reviewed submissions and selected a group of five finalists. The five finalists were asked to develop public art proposals. The selection panel reconvened to review the proposals in March 2006. The artists then presented their proposals at the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council meeting in early April 2006. The panel reconvened for a final time in mid-April 2006, and selected Lakich to receive the commission.
Lakich has been working in illuminated metal sculpture for more than four decades. She has exhibited her work in the United States, Canada, Japan andEurope since 1978. Lakich’s public art commissions include L.A. Angel on the wall of the parking garage for the Museum of Contemporary Art at CaliforniaPlaza and When the Eagle Flies in the lobby of the WashingtonBuilding, both in downtown Los Angeles, and Guardian for Miller Children’s Hospital at Long BeachMemorialMedicalCenter. Lakich was the founding director of the Museum ofNeon Art and the author of Neon Lovers Glow in the Dark (1986) and LAKICH: For Light. For Love. For Life. (2007).
First opened in 1975 as an inexpensive shuttle service between the San Fernando Valley and Los AngelesInternationalAirport (LAX), LAWA built a new terminal in 2004. The Van Nuys FlyAway Bus Terminal is located at 7610 Woodley Avenue. The FlyAway bus service is also available from Union Station in downtownLos Angeles and Westwood (near UCLA). All three locations provide convenient, low-cost, non-stop transportation to LAX.
