The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

Barn ball bounces back into Burlington

On the way to Burlington each year, many UVM students pass the classic red clapboard barns that so scenically dot the Vermont countryside.

So when walking through campus, one may not be surprised to spot a sculpture that pays a little tribute to those picturesque barns, but a sculpture that could roll away?

Lars-Erik Fisk’s “Barn Ball” bounced onto campus earlier this month. On Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2008, Fisk, a 1993 graduate of UVM, returned to tell students, parents, alumni and members of the community a little bit about “Barn Ball.” Fisk stood watching the crowd that packed the Fleming Museum lobby. The reaction from viewers varied, but most expressed the same overall idea; it’s just your classic barn ball.

But “Barn Ball” is not your average spherical barn. “Average” would require there to be more than one and that they be, well, not spherical.

As the Robert Hull Fleming Museum Director Janie Cohen is proud to admit, “Barn Ball” is unique. Trying to find the deeper meaning in the roundness of “Barn Ball,” I asked the artist himself to shed some light on the real significance behind the ball. “Because it didn’t make any sense whatsoever,” Fisk said as he laughed at my attempt to search out the implicit ramifications of the piece.

“Barn Ball” is meant to inspire the thoughts that many viewers at the reception had. It’s a barn in a ball. Fisk explained a little more eloquently that he created the “Barn Ball” and its round companions to toy with the viewers’ perceptions. Shifting our perception, he has made the average Vermont barn “an icon of some sort,” he said.

Fisk’s sculpture has had quite a journey before returning to its home in Burlington, where, thanks to generous donor Betsey Wakeman, it is here to stay. “Barn Ball” was carved from rough timber right here in Burlington. After a trip to Dartmouth College for an exhibition, it returned as part of a much larger and very round exhibit that included many other “ball” structures. “Barn Ball” also made appearances nationally as the album cover for Phish’s “Round Room,” released in 2002.

“Barn Ball” then returned to New Hampshire to reside in Wakeman’s garden, where it stayed until, as Wakeman said, “it was close to death.”

Fisk openly admitted the flaws of “Barn Ball,” mainly its lack of a roof, which prevented it from remaining in Wakeman’s garden. “I am not sure how that didn’t make it into the design,” he joked.

With “Barn Ball” being in such bad shape, it returned to Fisk’s studio right here in Burlington to be restored before being tossed one last time to the Fleming Museum.

“Barn Ball,” although equally fit as the neighbor of the old woman who lived in a shoe, is here to stay as a fixture in the front window of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum.

“Barn Ball” adds a little bounce to our historic campus.

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Barn ball bounces back into Burlington