When Beth Lipman, an artist from Sheboygan Falls, Wis., was researching for her sculpture Hive Mind, she spent time with several faculty members at Iowa State University.
“I had no idea how significant of a university it was,” Lipman said. “I really came in knowing very little about Iowa State University, and now I am its biggest fan ambassador.”
Lipman went on to create the 3,000-pound Hive Mind sculpture, an 8-foot bronze hay bale, a reference to the round hay baler that was originally patented by the late Wesley “Wes” Buchele, a longtime professor of agricultural engineering at ISU. The work of art represents many examples of innovation at ISU, incorporating glass elements of objects that illustrate significant contributions by the ISU community, according to the university’s website.
As part of its 50th anniversary, University Museums commissioned Lipman to create a sculpture that “represents the years of research and innovation completed at ISU, and the ever-accumulating influence these discoveries had or made on the human experience,” according to the university.
Sydney Marshall, ISU’s art on campus curator, said the sculpture, which is located in the green space between Morrill Hall and Beardshear Hall, consists of the round hay bale with glass elements that emerge from the hay bale representing the different departments Lipman visited. Among the elements are Rice Krispies Treats, because that recipe was made at ISU, she said.
“There’s all sorts of things that are emerging from that that represent … an Iowa State department or innovation,” Marshall said. “They’re all clear glass, so it’s not immediately obvious what they are, but it just shows this accumulation of knowledge over time.”
Lipman said the sculpture became something that was almost a “visual cosmos” of “the way that individuals come together in community and create change.”
“All of the glass inclusions that are flowing into and coming out of the bronze portion of the sculpture are representative of different points in time in Iowa State University’s history, whether they’re ongoing, programmatic elements of Iowa State University, or singular moments in time that were informed by socio-political events.”
Lipman pointed to ISU professor George W. Snedecor, in the department of mathematics and later the department of statistics — she has his book and calculator in Hive Mind. Lipman also visited the agronomy department and the seed bank.
“I did make some things that refer to the seed bank, like I made a tube with a ton of glass seeds in it,” she said. “There is a very minimal reference to the memory drum from the first computer, which I just found to be so captivating. There’s a bunch of things that refer to that first computer in Hive Mind. There’s light bulbs that were used in the first computer. There’s a COVID molecule in the sculpture, because Iowa State was so essential to solving the vaccination.”
She also included a paddle, in a nod to the Greek system, and some items related to George Washington Carver, who was ISU’s first Black student, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After graduation, he became Iowa State’s first Black faculty member.
“I created a little indigo ink bottle that he had used, and then also this tiny, little ceramic thrown vase that he made,” Lipman said.
Hive Mind is a combination of significant people, events and interesting objects with multiple layers of meaning, she said.
“I hope that a viewer would be curious enough to want to come up close to it actually, and really explore the objects and explore the surface and the sculpture,” Lipman said. “It’s meant to work from very far away, as well as up close, so I hope that people will recognize themselves in it. In some ways, certain objects will probably resonate for certain individuals, depending upon what their experience and their background, their history is.”
“I’m hoping that they are provoked to really learn about the history of Iowa State University,” she said.
Iowa State’s University Museums is holding several events featuring Lipman and Hive Mind, including a virtual event today at 5:30 p.m. with Lipman and artist Matt Crane, who fabricated the bronze bale portion of the sculpture.
A Feb. 12 event will feature Lipman and artist Norwood Viviano, who has a solo exhibition in the Brunnier Art Museum through July. On Feb. 13 there will be a performance of a piece of music inspired by the sculpture, a collaboration between University Museums and the Iowa State Band and ISU Wind Ensemble.