At USC, a Sycamore With a Story to Tell

A sycamore in the Rose Bowl’s parking lot caught Joel Tauber’s attention.

Nothing puts down roots like a good story. Next week, when Joel Tauber plants a “tree baby” in front of the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Fine Arts, it’s the story behind the sapling that people are sure to remember.

Three years ago, Mr. Tauber noticed a lonely sycamore tree in the middle of parking lot K at the Rose Bowl. The tree, whose roots had been covered over with asphalt, became not only an obsession but also the focus of a project he called Sick-Amour. Mr. Tauber, who teaches video art at the university, began watering the tree, and put up barriers to protect it from cars, and made it the focus of a 12-part video in which he recalls that Xerxes, the Persian king, became so enamored of a plane tree that he assigned a bodyguard to watch over it.

Now seeds from Mr. Tauber’s sycamore have sprouted and are ready for planting. It’s one of those tree babies, as Mr. Tauber calls them, that will be planted during a ceremony at USC on Thursday.

Tree babies are being planted all over Southern California, the university’s news release says, as part of a project supported by LA >