What was once an old, abandoned woodshed on the Kent Campus from the early 1900s eventually evolved into a controversial and well-known piece of art.
鈥淣obody was planning on a world-famous work of art,鈥 says Brinsley Tyrrell, 5X社区 Professor Emeritus. 鈥淚t happened and became famous.鈥
Tyrrell remembers back to 1970 when his students invited to campus Robert Smithson, an artist who was exploring new territory by using the earth to create a sculpture.
鈥淗e said, he always wanted to bury a building,鈥 recalls Tyrrell.
So they chose the woodshed, rented a backhoe and dropped 20 truckloads of dirt on it until the center beam cracked.
鈥淚 asked him what he wanted to happen to it, and he said that he wanted it to acquire its own history,鈥 Tyrrell says.
As the shed physically eroded, Smithson envisioned it taking on a new meaning.
Three months later, May 4, 1970, happened, giving the earthwork a legacy that some say reflected the politically turbulent times.
Several years later, to the surprise of critics, the decaying shed was on display in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
鈥淭here was an entire gallery of blown-up photographs of the buried woodshed, and I thought, wow, something has happened here that I don鈥檛 know about,鈥 Tyrrell chuckles.
Arsonists burned down half of the shed in 1975. While the remains were considered an eye sore on campus, it attracted visitors from around the world 鈥 and still does.
All that is left today is the stone foundation behind Kent State鈥檚 Liquid Crystal Institute庐.
The university has cleared away all the foliage and put up a new plaque to mark a piece of evolving history, one that Smithson unknowingly predicted would happen when it was left to decay 鈥 just the way he wanted.
鈥淪ome of us who talked to Smithson knew that he didn鈥檛 want us to preserve it. He wanted us to let it be,鈥 Tyrrell says.
