New York architects Diller, Scofidio and Renfro are behind the artwork, planted as part of the Biennial arts festival
Rotating tree’s have become the latest addition to Liverpool’s artistic landscape. They are among a group of 17 Hornbeams on a former brownfield site close to Liverpool's Anglican cathedral.
New York architects Diller, Scofidio and Renfro are behind the creation of the Arbores Laetae, or Joyful Trees, which is part of the Biennial arts festival opening on 20 September.
Festival bosses say the slowly rotating trees, intended to be a playful reinvention of the public park, allow people the chance to “view nature at its most unnatural”.
The installation consists of 17 hornbeams planted in a grid pattern, at the heart of which, three trees slowly rotate.
Scofidio told the BBC: “I found that it’s both beautiful, wonderful and a little bit frightening. Trees in poems are beautiful objects, but they are also things that tap on your window at night and in many fairy stories are quite evil and dangerous."
“The other day when I arrived I was walking on the sidewalk and the tree was following me as I was walking along – it was quite strange”
Fifteen of the art works commissioned for the month-long festival, one of the Capital of Culture highlights, will be exhibited in public spaces.
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