A towering steel tree with bright orange branches has taken root in Raleigh's Dix Park, and unlike most sculptures, this one wants you to touch it. The painted steel piece stands 23 feet tall and sprouts 23 regulation-size basketball hoops at the ends of its branches, inviting visitors to grab a ball and start shooting in Flowers Field, right next to Flowers Cottage.
A Playable Sculpture With a Message
The work is called Orange Functional, created by Cuban-born artist Alexandre Arrechea, according to Dix Park Conservancy. Basketballs are available on site for anyone to pick up and play, while supplies last, the conservancy notes. The sculpture's opening celebration ran from 6 to 8 p.m. on October 7, a free event open to the public, and Arrechea himself attended the public unveiling that evening, as reported by IndyWeek.
Arrechea has said the moment before a shot involves choosing one possibility without knowing the outcome, and he hopes the sculpture offers a playful way to consider choosing and living with the result, according to Axios. It's a concept that turns a simple pickup game into something closer to a meditation on decisions and their consequences.
Not the First Basketball Tree to Bear Fruit
Orange Functional isn't a one-off. Art Omi, a sculpture and architecture park in Ghent, New York, commissioned the first playable version of the piece in 2022, with the original unveiled there on June 25 of that year, per Arrechea's own site. Other versions of the sculpture have since popped up elsewhere, including at the entrance to Biidaasige Park in Toronto and at the San Antonio Spurs' practice facility in 2023, the Dix Park blog post states.
The Toronto installation, which sits in the plaza of Old Firehall 30 as part of the Lassonde Art Trail, features more than twenty rims at the ends of curving steel branches, according to Designboom. Arrechea has built installations around the world, including other basketball trees, Axios notes, making Orange Functional part of a recurring motif in his work rather than a one-time Raleigh commission.
Part of a Bigger Push for Public Art
Dix Park Conservancy prioritizes public art within the park, and this latest addition follows the conservancy's earlier investment in a series of wooden troll sculptures that became a visitor magnet, according to the Axios report. Those trolls, made by Danish artist Thomas Dambo using recycled materials, were tentatively planned to appear at Dix Park around October 2025, per the same account.
The park's master plan promised that arts and culture would play an important role in its future, and the conservancy says it is building a cultural landscape through public art installations, artist residencies and creative collaborations. An Art Task Force made up of art professionals and community leaders guides the vision and implementation of those projects, the conservancy's website states.
Orange Functional joins other recent additions to the park's growing collection, including Attun, an 18-foot-tall sculpture spanning roughly 150 feet near the park's Western Boulevard entrance at Boylan Avenue. That piece was created by New York-based sculptor DeWitt Godfrey, who worked with Saint Augustine's University art professor Linda Dallas and her students on the installation, the same visitraleigh.com account notes. Future plans for the park reportedly include poetry-based visual works, a three-dimensional portrait and steel deer sculptures, part of a privately funded arts initiative driven by the conservancy.
