Just the facts: An Art Installation
What: An installation of over 50 iron trees in the downtown London core. They are all painted in one of six colours, the three primary (red, blue, yellow) or three secondary (orange, green, purple). They are 14-18 feet high. Each tree has the name of the artist, year it was made, and the species of tree it is meant to represent formed out of a welded bead of metal at its base.
Species of tree include: Hawthorn, Trembling Aspen, Silver Maple, White Ash, White Oak, Black Oak, White Pine, and Black Cherry.
Who: The London Downtown Business Association commissioned the works from Bill Hodgson, a local ironworker and artist.
When: Trees are dated 2007 and 2008, some may have been placed in 2009.
Where: In the downtown core of London, Ontario. As far west as Ridout, and as far east as Wellington St., on sidewalks and roadway centre islands.
Why: To beautify the downtown with original artwork.
What Makes Effective Public Art?
The
following posts are my thoughts on the metal trees installed in
downtown London, Ontario. Each essay highlights a different aspect of
the use of public funds for public art. Together I hope they give teh
reader some food for thought on the different factors that need to be
weighed when spending taxpayer money on projects intended to enrich the
arts and culture of a community.
The short essays are, in the order that they were written:
Metal Trees, Painted Brightly
Oh Metal Tree, Is that Art I see?
A Little Shade for You and Me, Under this Iron Tree
You can take a look here
at a map of all the Metal Tree locations I've documented. There is also a
map of all the art I've documented in London, a list of the
essays I've written on London's Tree Trunk Tour, and it's
associated map, and a
gallery of images for all the Trees of the Carolinian Forest I've photographed to date.
