PHOTO BY MITCHELL KEARNEY PHOTOGRAPHY
ART smart
Old Growth
Asheville-based artist Hoss Haley designed Old Growth, the
40-foot, 20-ton sculpture that stands tall at the Charlotte
Douglas International Airport Wilson Air Center, to evoke the
presence of a tree.
But the massive public work of art, completed last summer,
is more than Haley's version of a towering oak; it's an
exploration of the relationship between people and trees.
The outstretched limbs of Old Growth mimic the canopy
a large tree provides, and cars and buses easily pass
underneath the sculpture's lowest branch. In all of its
grandeur, Old Growth shelters visitors in a dramatic shadow.
Over time and through the elements, the color of the corten
steel forms will become a beautiful, earthy rusty red.
For more information on public art in Charlotte,
visit charlottesgotalot.com/public-art
By Bernie Petit
OCTOBER 2016 17