by Paul R. Spitzzeri
The last of the winning trio of talented local students in the City of Industry 60th Anniversary Art Contest is Christina Kuo. Christina, who just finished her sophomore year at Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights, submitted a very futuristic and highly vertical vision of the City of Industry in 2057, the theme of the contest.
Her work shows all manner of striking structures in a variety of remarkable shapes and colors reflecting what many future-thinking planners believe has to be the future of urban areas, in which development has to go up rather than out. Presumably, the buildings include housing, as well as offices and those used for manufacturing and distribution.
Another key element deals with the transportation and there are two notable components to Christina’s work. One is mass transit as reflected at the bottom right with a monorail-like train crossing what looks to be a highway or road. The other, above that, shows flying vehicles.
While the self-driving car is just around the corner, for many of us the flying car seems way off in the distance (though think about how far removed the self-driving vehicle was for us even ten years ago). The art work depicts the City in four decades, but, just today news came out that the parent company of automaker Volvo purchased a start-up with what is said to be a promising flying car prototype. Here is an article in Popular Mechanics about that purchase.
As for my favorite part of Christina’s piece, it obviously has to be the depiction of the Workman House from the Homestead housed (presumably for preservation) in a sort of bio-dome. While current future planning for the museum looks ahead to the next decade or so, seeing Christina’s vision got me thinking about where the Homestead will be in 40 years.
That will be, by the way, when a time capsule that is in preparation now and which is expected to be sealed soon will be opened. Those involved in the time capsule planning have been working on contributions to it from local organizations, but what is intriguing looking at this work is to envision what the City and the museum will be like in 2057.
I’d be 92 years old then, so it is possible I could be there at the city’s centennial and the unsealing of the capsule, so who knows? Our student artists would be anywhere from their late forties to mid fifties and it’d be great if they could make it!
The Homestead is now displaying all three of the winning entries in the contest in an exhibit case in the foyer of the Gallery, so, if you’re at the museum this summer, come check them out.
Congratulations once more to Arthur Lin, April Diaz and Christina Kuo, the talented local artists who won their respective levels of the contest!