A vivid exhibition is now on view in the new Metro Art Passageway Gallery at Union Station. Sequenced in 36 lightboxes, Play captures the transitory movement of sports, as the Los Angeles region prepares to host the World Cup and the June 25-28 Fan Zone Union Station. These artworks by Pelle Cass capture a series of events unfolding on fields and courts into a single exuberant image.
The artist’s process begins with stillness: a camera fixed on a tripod, a stretch of sand or a court and hours of observation. From an abundance of 3,000 to 10,000 exposures of one game, nothing is staged beyond the ordinary flow of events.
By collapsing these moments into an out-of-sequence whole, Cass maps movement into patterns of travel. A solitary athlete is repeated across the landscape; a single bouncing ball becomes a layered visual choreography. The result is a form of time-lapse photography presented as a lively compression of time.
There is something delightfully unruly and buoyant in these images — a sense that order and chaos are partners in a grand dance. By taking the focus off winners or losers, Cass allows the act of play to prevail over competition, celebrating the universal impulse to run, leap and gather.
As Los Angeles hosts major sporting events, Play invites us to look beyond the scoreboard. These works remind us that we, like the athletes on the field, are a collection of fleeting instants forming a larger, dynamic whole.
Metro Art is LA’s arts connector featuring one of the largest collections of public art in the nation. Plan your trip using the Transit app, Moovit app, Google or Apple maps, metro.net, or by calling 323.GO.METRO.
About the Artist
Pelle Cass utilizes a “still time-lapse” technique to collapse hours of human movement into singular, densely layered compositions. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Fogg Art Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum and has been published and exhibited widely in such places as the New York Times, Die Zeit and the Atlantic. Following recent solo exhibitions in Los Angeles and Boston, Cass will be featured at The Cultural Capital of Europe/Oulu 2026 and Fotografiska Tallinn (2027).
About Metro Art
Metro Art enhances the customer experience with innovative, award-winning visual and performing arts that encourages ridership and connects people, neighborhoods and destinations throughout L.A. County. A diverse range of site-specific artworks are integrated into the growing Metro system, improving the quality of transit environments, and creating a sense of place. Follow Metro Art on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Sign up for the Metro Art email list to learn about upcoming art opportunities, events and more.
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