The Suspended Orange Tree in Jaffa is a work of art by the Israeli Artist, Ran Morin. When Touring Old Jaffa you will find it among the city streets. It is a hidden work of Morin’s known as the Floating Orange Tree. Finished in 1993, this is a small orange tree that is elevated off of the ground by a large earthenware jug hung by metal chains from the walls of houses nearby. The tree is growing out of the pitcher, trying to break it. Morin sought to emphasize the increasing world of separation between man and nature, as “creatures that grow in containers.”
Morin began his creative work in the mid-70s with the construction of a computer model of the illusion of abstract forms of movement, at the Weizmann Institute. In the early ’80s, he began to focus on integrating nature (mainly trees) with modern sculpture materials.
The Suspended Orange Tree is hung only a foot or so off of the ground – enough to see its shadow, but not so high that it seems about to fall down. Morin has used hanging trees elsewhere: another one adorns the lobby of the Dan Eilat Hotel (finished in 1995), and a hanging maple tree can be seen in London’s Regent Park (1994).
