Traffic Light tree, Public art sculpture in Tower Hamlets, England
This installation features 75 real traffic light housings mounted on a steel frame about 8 meters tall (26 feet), branching out in all directions like limbs. It stands on a small roundabout near Billingsgate Market, surrounded by roads and office buildings.
Pierre Vivant created the work in 1998 after a plane tree at this spot died from exhaust fumes. The sculpture was relocated several times and returned to its original site in Tower Hamlets in 2014.
The name refers to the real traffic signals that the artist arranged into an artificial tree, standing on the roundabout where a living tree once grew. The light signals change as they do in real traffic, but without a fixed sequence, reflecting the hectic rhythm of the financial world around them.
Canary Wharf station on the Jubilee Line sits a few minutes on foot and leads directly into the financial district. The sculpture is visible at all times from every side, as it stands freely on the roundabout.
A survey of British drivers in 2005 named this roundabout the favorite in the country. Many passersby pause briefly to watch the constantly changing light patterns created by a computer-controlled random program.
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