“Spaceship Earth” crashes

Thursday, January 4th, 2007 10:56 am by Neal
BEFORE: A life-size figure of the late environmentalist David Brower stands atop a massive sphere in ‘Spaceship Earth,’ the $1 million sculpture unveiled at Kennesaw State University in October. (AJC)
AFTER: Kennesaw State University employee John Kirtley examines a pile of rubble that was once the sculpture ‘Spaceship Earth.’ It collapsed last Thursday during campus holiday break. (AJC)

For this story, we need a new category: “Irony.” Here’s the story from today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “One small step for sculptor, one giant mess for KSU”

“Spaceship Earth” has crashed to the ground.

Barely three months after the $1 million sculpture was unveiled at Kennesaw State University, it collapsed in the middle of the night — all 175 tons — perhaps because of faulty glue.

What was intended as a gift for future generations rested instead as a pile of rubble Wednesday, blue rocks chipped and scattered in front of the Social Sciences building. The engraved phrase “our fragile craft” was visible amid the debris.

“Kind of ironic,” said Mary-Elizabeth Watson, a university employee. “I had no idea it was made up of so many pieces.”

News of the sculpture’s demise brought more questions than answers from the Finnish-born sculptor who created the piece and who goes by one name: Eino.

“How can stone collapse by itself?” he asked. “I’m devastated.”

Eino (pronounced Ay-no) called the sculpture Spaceship Earth to honor David Brower, an environmentalist. The sculpture depicted a bronze figure of Brower standing on top of the world. On Wednesday, the figure of Brower rested under debris.

Eino worked on the sculpture for about two years, traveling to Brazil to find blue quartzite before spending about four months meticulously piecing together his masterpiece.

The founders of California-based PowerBar paid for the sculpture.

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