Everyday on my way to work, I walk by this gigantic panel of LED tree, in the intersection of 忠孝敦化 in Taipei. For once, I have decided to stop and take a good look at it, face-to-face.
It's a grand art display of what represents peace, harmony and balance. What else? In the core of Taipei, a city that never sleeps and keeps growing, the tree represents strength, steady expansion, solidity and foundation to our society. But I couldn't help but sense something troubling me inside...
Perhaps there is a different interpretation? A different story. Hmmmm... As I stood still in the middle section of the road, I watched an ocean of people passing by me, wave by wave, in such haste to get to work. Something about this imagery perplexed me - the busy people walking in a hurry and the large LED tree appearing almost invisible in downtown Taipei.
The mere contradiction to use LED technology to represent trees - the root of pure mother nature - seemed funny to me. Especially the immense size of the "fake" tree magnifies this irony, this sharp unnatural contrast. Could this be a reminder to us - in a society driven by growth, technology and efficiency - that we should occasionally stop and ponder the question:
"Where are the trees? Have we forgotten them....have we forgotten ourselves?"
