Danish artist and former SUNY Fredonia student Nina Hole returned to her old school in September as a Williams Visiting Professor with the intention of leaving a work of lasting significance on campus. Her mission was a success.
 
Her artwork, entitled "Turning Point," was a tall, curvaceous ceramic piece stationed between Rockefeller Arts Center and Three-Man Hill. Unfortunately, the notoriously fickle Western New York weather conspired to ruin the piece even before it was finished. Ms. Hole’s two-week residency, however, provided SUNY Fredonia Visual Arts and New Media students with an invaluable look into the real-world considerations professional artists face during the creative process, and drew hundreds of art lovers to the SUNY Fredonia campus for a memorable nighttime unveiling.
 
"Everybody’s happy," said Marvin Bjurlin, a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Ceramics at SUNY Fredonia. Mr. Bjurlin taught Ms. Hole when she attended SUNY Fredonia during the mid-1970s, and invited her to visit the university after becoming reacquainted with the Danish sculptress in recent years. "This has been a celebration. The piece may be gone as a standing work of art, but the real purpose of the Williams Visiting Professorship was to give our students a chance to rub shoulders with a talented professional, and they certainly got that. I think the fact that the piece didn’t stand is just a little less frosting on an otherwise delicious cake."
 
Ms. Hole is known in ceramic circles worldwide for her innovative method of firing clay. Using her own inventive process, Ms. Hole wraps an outdoor sculpture in special blankets and actually fires the piece as it stands, creating internal temperatures close to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. When the blanket is removed at the end of the process, the artwork will emit a beautiful internal glow as it cools back to air temperature.
 
Ms. Hole came to SUNY Fredonia in the second week of September, recruited a number of art students and set out to create "Turning Point" using this process. Had it stood, it would have been only the third sculpture of its kind in the United States. Wind and rain plagued the construction and firing process. However, when the refractory blankets were removed on schedule the night of Friday, Sept. 23, the fiery glow contained within the sculpture wowed the hundreds of spectators who had arrived to watch the unveiling.
 
"It was quite a sight," said Mr. Bjurlin. "The public in attendance was taken by the drama of the entire event. Many people commented to me that they could not have imagined what it would be like."
 
The structural damage caused by the inclement weather was also unmistakable. The weather struck again a few days later with gusts of wind that reached 50 miles per hour and blew a large chunk out of the already crooked sculpture. After consulting with SUNY Fredonia President Dennis L. Hefner, who had originally approved the project, Mr. Bjurlin decided it would be in the best interest of public safety to bring "Turning Point" down.
 
"It was structurally unsound at that point," Mr. Bjurlin said. "It wasn’t really safe to leave it to deconstruct on its own."
 
With Ms. Hole home in Denmark, the students who assisted with the project gathered one final time at the site of the sculpture. They were armed with bricks, and when the area was cleared, the students took turns firing the bricks at the weakest points of the sculpture. After a few direct hits, "Turning Point" crumbled into dust. The students collected pieces of the rubble for mementos.
 
No sadness surrounded the process, according to Mr. Bjurlin.
 
"This was not mourning," he said. "It was actually kind of exciting. I think the students were liberated from their frustrations with the project. The deconstruction became a celebration culminating two very exciting weeks of hard work."
 
Mr. Bjurlin is VERY pleased that his current students had a chance to meet one of his former students in such a constructive, inspiring fashion.
 
Mr. Bjurlin, working in conjunction with Scott Bye, a senior sculpture student from Lockport, has replaced "Turning Point" with a steel interpretation in the same size and shape. This new form, a sort of three-dimensional line drawing, will better handle the elements.
 
"I feel an enormous amount of satisfaction," Mr. Bjurlin said. "As a teacher, my goal is always to have my students go on to do bigger and better things, and you want to give them the tools to do it. Nina was able to go out and make a real name for herself, and now these students have taken one more step in that direction, too."
 
To see images and read more about the "Turning Point" sculpture project at SUNY Fredonia, visit www.imageevent.com/marvbjurlin/. To learn more about projects and programs at SUNY Fredonia, go to www.fredonia.edu/rac.