Fifth Street Station
Failed Ideals, 1995
Jim Isermann,artist
Jim Isermann's Failed Ideals is composed of six stained-glass windows installed into the portholes of the station pylons. Each window design is based on architectural details, some lost and some surviving, found in the City of Long Beach: from Arts and Crafts bungalows to the Pike; from classic movie palaces to the lost signage of drive-in theaters; from fifties concrete block and linoleum patterns to 1960’s remodeled facades of much older buildings. The architectural references recall the lost optimism and failed ideals of their time.
"I am interested in utopian solutions that blur the distinction between art and design through utilitarian application. For seven years I have hand-crafted a series of work: latch hook rugs, stained glass, hand-pieced fabric and hand-loomed weavings. These crafts, once a part of everyday life, have fallen into hobby shop dilution. The pathos of obsolete populist ideals are translated into handiwork. The handiwork returns these crafts to a fine art context and restores their lost ideals."