Echoing some of Christo’s most visually impactful art installations, SpY has transformed Ghent University’s Aula Academia into an illuminated spiky creation.
Using an impressive 11,984 illuminated traffic cones, the main neoclassical columns have been festooned to transform them into something dramatic, eye catching, and wild.
It’s a fascinating juxtaposition, pairing classic architecture and smooth stone with something bright, plastic, and more symbolic of caution, or construction.
The cones are cleverly positioned like puzzle pieces to completely cover the columns. The addition of lighting really transform the entire installation into a marvel to behold.
Simply named CONES, the installation is part of a larger light festival that includes Charles Pétillon, Benedikt Tolar, Atelier Sisu, and more.
- ““Cones” is a site-specific installation of hundreds of traffic cones wrapped around the front columns of the Aula Academica at Ghent University. The intervention alters the building’s assumed solemnity through an unconventional and thornily subversive aesthetic re-envisioning of its front.
Working from the appropriation of an everyday urban element, the piece takes over the building to create unexpected and intrusive, yet playful encounters for viewers. During the night the cones glow, adding a layer of transformation to the experience of the street space.”
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2 Comments
It looks like the rollers on the bottom of my mop vac were stood on their side. It there is a connection the artist found linking traffic cones to classic architecture, I’d love to hear it. Otherwise, for me, this is a conceit in search of a meaning.
…wow!!!….