Students enrolled in the class Jump!Star Sculpture & Ritual spent the month of June fabricating a large, illuminated paper sculpture with George Ferrandi, a Brooklyn-based visiting artist. Ferrandi co-taught the class with ADCI Gallery Manager Kristin Beal.
Ferrandi collaborated with the class on the design, which depicts a swan on a bridge. The sculpture represents Deneb, one earth’s eventual north stars. Composed of a wood and wire armature covered with paper and lit by LED bulbs, the finished sculpture is approximately 14 feet long, seven feet wide and eight feet tall.
Students in the class worked five days a week for four weeks, arriving in the morning and working through the early afternoon in Henrion Hall’s cavernous west gym. Ferrandi taught the technique she learned from the Japanese masters who create massive illuminated floats for Nebuta festivals held in the Aomori region of Japan.
“At first I was hesitant to create a piece so large and complex,” said Xuan Ha. “But with the help of my classmates and George’s guidance, I felt confident in my ability to produce intricate pieces for Deneb. This course has shaped my understanding of community art and how important it is to collaborate with others to bring your artistic vision to fruition.”
Throughout the month, Deneb gained collaborators from the ranks of ADCI alumni and the community at large, who dropped by Henrion at all hours to assist with the elaborate project.
Jump!Star, which is funded in part by an NEA Our Town grant, centers around the shifting of Polaris, our current pole star. Because of its position, Polaris remains fixed in the night sky, while all other stars and planets appear to rotate around it throughout the night and around the year. However, due to a slight wobble in the earth’s rotation, the pole star position is not forever fixed. In about 1,000 years, earth will welcome a new pole star, Gamma Cephei. Eventually, eleven other stars will serve in this important role.
Learning this news “blew my mind,” says Ferrandi. It inspired her to create Jump!Star, a project that wonders how humanity will commemorate the eventual celestial shift. Interdisciplinary and forward-looking, Jump!Star seeks to understand what the future holds by consulting with renowned scientists and other experts on a wide range of topics including climatology, astrophysics and agriculture. The project is a participatory community celebration with its own visuals, music, dance, and narratives.
Students will have another opportunity to engage with Jump!Star this upcoming academic year in Kristin Beal’s SlowBurn course. A six-credit-hour class that meets both in the fall and spring semesters, students will assist with the remaining Jump!Star constellates, including traditional food + future farms and sky + stars + stories.
Learn more about Jump!Star by visiting the project’s website, jumpstar.love.