Elysian Park is now an indoor-outdoor museum, and one of its exhibits reclaims pieces of the beloved (by some) Totem of Toys (Chicken Corner's title) that Rec and Parks tore down in May.

To explain: LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) has instituted a temporary "museum" program for the Elysian Park Museum of Art, or EPMoA. Exhibitions, installations and performances will take place en plein air in Elysian Park and inside LACE's gallery spaces.

According to LACE:

The LACE galleries have been transformed into the park visitor's center complete with artifacts, benches, and foliage. The installation documents and recreates past and current EPMoA actions inside the park. Representatives of both the curatorial workshop and the park-using community will take part in the selection and presentation of documentation (sound recordings, photography, video, illustration, re-enactment, written description, etc.)

EPMoA was founded in 2009.

As for the Totem, the work of artist Ryan Wade, it came down in May after many months of existence on the far west side of Elysian Park. The Eastsider reported that no one showed up to claim the piece, which the city held on to for something like a week. Then it trashed it. Ryan Wade emailed me yesterday that he saved as much of it as he could from a dumpster. These salvaged pieces form a new piece, on view at LACE. The new sculpture is a monument to the former totem.

Photos: Top, courtesy of Ryan Wade; bottom, is Chicken Corner's.