About Metaphor: The Tree of Utah
Interstate 80 crosses miles of flat, pale desert west of Salt Lake City. Then an 87-foot concrete tree covered in enormous colored spheres appears beside the highway with almost no warning. Metaphor: The Tree of Utah looks less like roadside landscaping than an object accidentally delivered to the wrong planet.
Swedish artist Karl Momen created the sculpture during the 1980s and dedicated it in 1986. A tall geometric trunk supports six large spheres coated with rock and mineral material, while broken-looking sections of additional spheres sit near the base. Against the nearly empty Bonneville Salt Flats, the artificial colors and impossible proportions become even stranger.
The sculpture is also commonly called the Tree of Life, although its formal title is Metaphor: The Tree of Utah. Momen donated the completed work to the state. A fence now surrounds the immediate base, so the sculpture is primarily a roadside landmark rather than something visitors climb or enter.
The Great Salt Lake Desert is famous for long views and almost featureless horizons. Dropping a multicolored concrete tree nearly nine stories tall into that emptiness created one of Utah’s most effective drive-by oddities. It does not need a billboard. The object itself is the billboard.