(I)cone, A Large Sculpture Made of 500 Orange Traffic Cones

(I)cone is a large outdoor sculpture by LIKEarchitects made of 500 orange plastic traffic cones located in City Park, Paredes, Portugal. At night, it is lit up with red LED lights.

‘(I)cone’ is an impertinent and interactive orange installation, of a great visual impact, waiting to surprise citizens and inviting them to experience the public space in a new way. We chose to use plastic as the main material of a permanent art installation, because it is hard and very resistant thus offering a range of possibilities for this type of intervention. This art installation subverts the original meaning of the object – the traditional orange traffic cones, which usually require traffic to circumvent an obstacle – inviting visitors to cross and interact with it.

‘(I)cone’ uses the traffic cone as its modular structure, taking advantage of their formal and chromatic characteristics, building a portico that encourages citizens to have a closer proximity with art.

photos by Marcos Garcia