What IS This?

Right.
Does anyone know what this is?!

I nearly crashed my car last week when I spotted it out the corner of my eye and immediately wondered if it had been there for weeks and I had only just noticed it.

Now it appears to be some kind of intricately carved wooden totem pole, but I can't find reference to it anywhere. I can only conclude that it has literally just sprung out of the ground by the roundabout between the university and the train station.

If anyone knows what it is in aid of (and massive apologies if it is a really obvious cultural / religious installation that I am completely oblivious to), I am really interested to know!

This follows the sudden appearance of a giant ant inside the train station, and my favourite piece of unexplained art, the disco-ball bird just past the bus depot near the Britannia.

I had an exciting thought that there might be some secret society living in Plymouth, whose sole purpose was to erect random statues and artwork around the city. If there isn't, there should be.

This runaway train of thought then led me to a very dusty box file buried deep in my brain archives, about a secret group in Paris who lovingly restored the rusty old clock on one of the city's most celebrated landmarks, the Pantheon.

I remember reading the story ages ago and thinking it was really sweet so I just trawled around on the internet for about 20 minutes until I found it here.