The
dedication of the new sculpture "METANOIA" in the Bethel College Library
Artist:
Bilhenry Walker
(in collaboration with Anna Beich, Michelle
Edmonds,
Emily Holm, Nathan Johnson, and Joel Lindquist)
Contributors:
Charlie Girsch, Bilhenry Walker,
Bethel College Department of Art, and H.J. Neon Company
Tuesday
April 6, 2004
4:00 p.m.
Bethel College Library
Artist Bilhenry Walker and contributor Charlie Girsch were in attendance.
Light
refreshments were served.
Metanoia
2003/2004
wood, polyester resin, acrylic,
neon, cement
Artists
Bilhenry Walker – Anna Beich – Michelle Edmonds – Emily
Holm – Nathan Johnson – Joel Lindquist
Metanoia is the Greek word used in the New Testament for “repentance,”
or more fully, for “turning.” In its fullest usage, this word is about
what gets redirected, made new, or finds greatest fulfillment by
changing directions. The sculpture, Metanoia, exemplifies this rich
concept of “turning” or being fulfilled. The painted wood fragments
suspended within its resin walls were originally part of a different,
large-scale sculpture by the artist/inventor Charlie Girsch. In that
work, carved in 1999, Mr. Girsch had taken a dying elm tree on his
property in St. Paul and redeemed its life by transforming something
dead into a lively and whimsical sculpture of immense size. Naming the
piece, Art Sculpture Formerly Known as Tree, Girsch created a playful
and spiritual set of colorful birdhouses and abstract forms implicit
within our notion of a tree’s shapes and of the life it holds within
the kingdom of its branches. References to the delight of bird song, as
well as to the eloquent teachings of Jesus about being not anxious
(“Consider the birds of the air, how they neither sow nor reap, nor
gather into barns, and yet their heavenly father feeds them”), were
rich in that original sculpture.
In 2001, when a new owner of the Girsch’s house called for the removal
of this sculpture, Charlie donated the piece to the Bethel Art Department’s
permanent collection. For two years it adorned the art courtyard behind
the CC building, until the weather caused enough rot that it had to come
down. Rather than let this wonderful form merely die a second death, adjunct
sculpture professor, Bilhenry Walker, announced a competition for teams
of student artists to submit concepts on how to reiterate the salvageable
parts into a new art work. With Charlie Girsch as sponsor and juror, the
team of Anna Beich, Michelle Edmonds, Emily Holm, Nathan Johnson, and
Joel Lindquist submitted the proposal that eventually became, Metanoia.
Working under the direction of Bilhenry Walker, whose expertise is resin
cast sculpture, fragments of the Art Sculpture Formerly Known as Tree
were cast into a three-sided obelisk, and capped with a pyramid holding
a clear sphere. The obelisk form traces back through public sculpture
and monuments (the Washington Monument in D.C.) and Baroque Christian
art (St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome) to ancient Egypt. It signifies
the concept of eternal life and thus bears an important spiritual meaning
for Christians. In Metanoia, the symbolism is greatly enriched, for the
playful little birdhouses within remind us that this is the third regeneration
of form. Ideas of healing, regeneration, life after death, as well as
a spiritual delight, playfulness, and soulful ascension are all woven
together here. These elements are then energized by the mysterious purple-blue
light of the neon tube radiating from within. What was once dead, what
was once fragmented, is now united and illuminated. What once followed
its natural course towards death has been turned, has repented under the
hand of the creative artist, and is full of life again.
Contributors: Charlie Girsch, Bilhenry Walker, Bethel College Art Department,
and H. J. Neon Company
