HARMONY TREE - wind sculpture
Project Name: Morgan Hill City Hall Plaza Public Art
Location: Morgan Hill, CA
Year Completed: October, 2017
Commissioned by Morgan Hill Arts Commission
Type: Public Art Commission
Budget: $100,000.
Material: Stainless Steel, Copper, LED Lightings
Size: 9'w x 9'd x 20'h
Objective: To create a gateway sculpture for the City of Morgan Hill. One that welcomes residents and visitors alike. One that celebrates and pays homage to the city's culture and accomplishments.
Artistic Idea:
During the design phase, we spent time in the community interviewing residents and distributing a questionnaire. The results of our research identified 7 key points that we identified as needing to be addressed:
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Pay homage to the past and look to the future
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Celebrate a vibrant and thriving community
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Enrich the fabric and culture of the community, now and for future generations
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Invite the viewers on different levels of interaction; from children to grandparents
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Create a visual dialogue that engages the community
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Education: discovering the meaning of the individual elements in the sculpture
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Night time presence
Our resulting concept, Harmony Tree, celebrates the orchards that the city was built on. It is a 20' high abstracted tree. The top half gently rotates as Ohlone native American harvesting baskets, mounted in the stylized branches, catch the wind. Within each basket are individually rotating icons (the “fruit”), fabricated in copper, that represent the accomplishments of the city over the years.
At night, all the baskets are illuminated with LED Lighting. This ensures a nighttime presence as the lights change colors in patterns programmed by the city.
