This series of three collages for Union Station in Washington, DC celebrates the vibrancy of our Nation’s Capital. Using fabrics from the many cultures that call Washington, DC home, the pieces combine architectural elements of the station (such as views of the grand departure hall and the ceiling coffers) with subtle references to the trains themselves. The central piece offers a sweeping view of Union Station’s hall, featuring a caryatid (a sculpted female figure that serves as architectural support, typically in place of a column) reimagined as the station’s muse. Paying homage to a statue that once stood in the hall in 1908, this figure embodies the station’s spirit and history. Framed by Beaux-Arts design elements and traditional and contemporary fabrics, it transforms the space into a dreamy tapestry of cultures. The two adjacent collages depict a centennial tree, symbolizing the nation’s unity and growth, and a pattern landscape from an Amtrak journey along the East Coast, blending history, travel, and culture into a vivid narrative of diversity.

Eirini Linardaki

I see the sky from where I am 1, 2 & 3, 2024

Digital collage 

68 x 48 inches

Karen Margolis

Sakura, 2024

Paper, wire, fiber, maps and other mixed media including found objects mounted on chicken wire

Dimensions of each panel: 5 x 17.5 feet

Sakura captures an impressionistic experience of Washington DC’s spectacular landscape from night to day and dawn to dusk through color and texture. Margolis created a vibrant, lush tapestry assemblage from discarded materials. Inspired by wabi-sabi philosophy honoring the beauty of imperfection, her process is directed at reshaping personal, collective, and historical ruptures through the power of color and form. Margolis uses maps to connect body, mind and environment. She considers paper as a container for ideas and feelings and the sphere as the perfect order in which to contain the chaos of life. Margolis molds damaged maps and materials into spherical form as an alchemical transformation of energy, generating new life from fragments. The transitioning states of cherry blossoms, or Sakura, from bloom to decay and rebirth are integral symbols throughout the work, alluding to turbulence and vitality that epitomize the fleeting nature of existence.

Tim Doud

A Great Public Walk, 2024

Acrylic on wood panels

40 x 108 inches

When Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed “The Federal City” of Washington DC he took an egalitarian approach. The mall was designed around the idea that every citizen is equally important. A Great Public Walk reflects Union Station’s role as a local, regional, national, and international hub. The painted collage features a patchwork of clothing and textiles Doud witnessed worn by people in Union Station, reflecting the population and demographics of all who use the station and who embody the District itself. The template for the collage is derived from the map of The Mall in DC, specifically around Lafayette Park, the Ellipse and extending to the Washington Monument. This place is the center of government and its complex history, attracting and welcoming people from all over the country and world. It is a place, in L’Enfant’s words, that is “open to all”. A Great Public Walk was the inaugural ‘Art at Amtrak’ installation at Washington Union Station’s departure concourse in the fall of 2023.