Destroying Art, May Be Art

Attending the yearly, Built to Burn event at Linfield University, I discovered that the act of burning a large, student created piece of art went beyond the normal boundaries of art as I understood it, somehow, unexpectedly becoming a deeper shared experience. The hour before, as the sun stood low in the sky, a patchwork crowd of all ages and demographics, gathered slowly in the tall grass. Children wrestled and ran, students nervously discussed the day’s events, retirees rattled the keys in their pockets as some of us, including myself, waited on the torch while our shadows grew. Once darkness fell, the head of the art department approached the structure, now stuffed with kindling and notes from the crowd, accompanied by a female friend, carried the flame from the edge of the field. As they lit the fairytale-like structure, the crowd reached a crescendo of chatter and nervousness, but once the flames began to lick at the sky, everyone around the circle, suddenly became silent and reflective. I thought about events from the past year since attending the previous year’s event, and laughed to myself over lost performance opportunities that could have been a silly part of the tradition. Even the small children seemed to calm and consider a future that only the flames could reveal.