ABILENE, Texas — 'The Singing Ringing Tree,' a pipe sculpture that uses wind to create sounds, will be planted in Abilene later this month.
The piece is made of 22 levels of pipes, all of which are 11-12 inches tall with a variety of thickness, music can be heard from 100-400 feet away, depending on daily wind.
The 22-feet tall art piece was most recently located in Travis County on private property, but on July 26, it will be rebuilt in downtown Abilene for the public to admire.
"It's a masterpiece, and for Abilene, it's going to draw a lot of visitors to the city," owner of JK Welding John King said.
King has been working alongside The Abilene Cultural Affairs Council to take down and rebuild the wind-powered sound sculpture, which will soon be located in the grassy medium near the Frontier Texas! Museum where Treadaway Boulevard splits into South 1st Street.
The entire process should take roughly three days.
The sculpture will play music through wind pipes, an idea originally inspired by a Germany fairy tale where the tree's songs are meant for anyone with love in their heart.
"The connection between the sculpture and the fairy tale makes this art piece a great fit for the Storybook Capital of America," executive director of the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council Lynn Barnett said.
Originally, the piece was created by Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu, two architects working with the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network in England as a way to add landmarks throughout the United Kingdom.
The piece was located in Burnley, U.K. in 2006, and a similar sculpture was later placed in Saudi Arabia.
Now, Abilene will be home to the third version of the sculpture, worth approximately $500,000.
That's not all, though. Over the following weeks, Abilene will be receiving five additional donated sculptures, all of which will also be worth half a million dollars.
The soon-to-be installed pieces include a popart sculpture called "Davidians" by Dianne Sonnenberg, a limestone figure called "Rainbow Bear" by Stuart Simpson, a limestone animal called "Critter" by Stuart Simpson, an aluminum horse sculpture called "Dancing Pony (Red)" by Kevin Box, and a steel and glass moving sculpture called "Kinetic Spinner" by Jim LaPaso.
JK Welding sponsor Northern Tool + Equipment will be filming the process of rebuilding the sculpture, as well. Eventually, they plan to create a commercial using the footage.
Anyone who is interested can watch the removal of the art piece from Travis County using the following links:
