"Daffodil Metamorphosis" by Michael Tansey (1996)

In 1996, Los Angeles County's Community Redevelopment Agency provided grants to individuals, commissioning public art projects to enhance downtown's city landscape. Michael Tansey's proposal of the "Daffodil Metamorphosis" was selected as one of these projects, receiving a $20,000 grant to take one of the city's unused air raid sirens and turn it into a modern art piece.
Michael Tansey's cast aluminum and steel sculpture is a creative renovation of a 34-foot tall air raid siren used during the Cold War to warn civilians of a pending nuclear attack on the city. The bright yellow flower blooms from below the base of the siren, shining a positive and contradictory light onto the decaying history of the fear of nuclear annihilation. Although both nuclear weapons and this metal flower were man-made, the daffodil, chosen for its tradition of being the first flower to bloom in spring, highlights the potential for a brighter future to come out of the once ominous symbol of the possible end of civilization.
Michael Tansey's cast aluminum and steel sculpture is a creative renovation of a 34-foot tall air raid siren used during the Cold War to warn civilians of a pending nuclear attack on the city. The bright yellow flower blooms from below the base of the siren, shining a positive and contradictory light onto the decaying history of the fear of nuclear annihilation. Although both nuclear weapons and this metal flower were man-made, the daffodil, chosen for its tradition of being the first flower to bloom in spring, highlights the potential for a brighter future to come out of the once ominous symbol of the possible end of civilization.