Traffic Light Tree

Traffic Light Tree

Pierre Vivant

London Docklands- Canary Wharf

8 meters tall

1998

"The sculpture imitates the natural landscape of the adjacent London Plane Trees, while the changing pattern of the lights reveals and reflects the never ending rhythm of the surrounding domestic, financial and commercial activities."- Vivant

When I saw the Traffic Light Tree I was immediately intrigued. The idea of taking something so ordinary and transforming it into a new language was really interesting. Something so industrial, like a traffic light creates such a bold statement when translating it into something so organic as a tree. The mimicking shape of the surrounding trees in the area makes you want to see its natural qualities, as little as they are.

This piece relates to my own piece in the sense that the artist is taking something completely out of the natural world and working to form it into it's own organic shape, given it's surroundings. 

The lights on the traffic tree also add to that idea in that they are constantly changing, just as the world around them changes, and the trees with leaves and time.