Lights Spikes was created by Jay Baker for the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrial Nations held in Houston that year. The large abstract flags that represent the European Economic Community as well as the seven counties that participated in the Summit, were originally installed in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. This sculpture consists of eight flags that are individually wrapped around square columns. Each “spike” is supported by an aluminum grid structure and a 10 foot concrete pier below the ground. The columns lean at a ten degree angle toward a central point that represents Houston.

Light Spikes by Jay Baker

The distance between each “spike” and this point is relative to the distance between Houston and the capital of the country the flags represent. The countries represented are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Canada, Italy and Germany, as well as the European community.

About the Artist 

Houstonian Jay Baker is the founder and president of Jay Baker Architects. He has received national acclaim as the designer of the Light Spikes. This art piece was adopted as the local and international symbol of the Summit.

He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Texas Society of Architects, and also serves as president of the Rice Design Alliance, a non-profit extension of Rice University's School of Architecture.