As the sun set on the beautiful evening of April 18, a castle-like structure sat in the field beside the Miller Fine Arts Center, donned with flags, shields and a dragon. The spectacular view was washed in the setting sun, as a group of over 200 Linfield students, alumni and McMinnville community members gathered around it, buzzing with energy and life.
This scene is nothing new to Linfield, as it marked the beginning of the annual Built To Burn, where art students led by Professor Totem Shriver build a sculpture every year. They then lead an event where they burn the sculpture down. This happens annually on the Friday of Earth Week.
“It’s a season celebration for Linfield,” Shriver said. “That experience may be renewal, starting over possibly, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new.”
The tradition began seventeen years ago, in 2008, and was heavily inspired by Burning Man. While Built to Burn is not a large festival that lasts for a week, it still pays homage to the sense of renewal and rebirth that Burning Man brings.
Built to Burn is one of many festivals and celebrations around fire, which occur all over the world in Scotland, Japan and Iran. This, Shriver said, calls on a primal force that is integral to humanity. Built to Burn is unique in that where it is located. Where most of these celebrations happen at large festivals, Built to Burn is done on a university campus.
“An academic institution doing this,” Shriver said. “I’m not aware of any.”
Built to Burn also gives the Art Department some identity that makes it unique from the rest of Linfield.
“It’s partly how we identify ourselves in the Art Department,” Shriver said. “Without the burn, we would be something a little bit different.”
Shriver added that Built to Burn will likely be his legacy at Linfield.
In many ways, this is what makes Built to Burn a special event. It is unique among academic institutions and continues a tradition of using fire as a ritual for celebration and reflection.
In fact, Built to Burn contributed in part to a few students’ decisions to join Linfield, according to Shriver.
The actual burn itself is a process that has been refined through years of community support.
“The local fire chief has to know and allow us to do that,” Shriver said. “My biggest supporter is the chairperson of the art department, Brian Winkenweder.”
According to Shriver, there has never been any problem getting the event approved, nor have there been any injuries during the construction and burning of the sculpture.
The wood itself was also provided by community members.
“All of this was free wood actually, provided from our local wood supplier,” Shriver said.
Shriver said he has been visiting the same company for the past few years, and has used their wood for Built to Burn since, although failing to mention which.
Collaboration is important in creating the structure, and every detail is gone over by Shriver and a group of students. Building collaboration is one of the reasons Shriver enjoys putting the event on every year. The number of students this year was 24.
The actual burning of the structure, while it may appear complicated, is actually very simple.
“There is this base structure,” Shriver said. “This year we had these two towers. Below the two towers in the base of the structure was what I called a flue.”
The flue was six inches by six inches, and went up about eight feet tall inside of the sculpture. This forced the fire to go up the structure through the chimneys. At the top of each chimney were smaller bits of wood that would enlarge the fire.
Overall, the structure itself is built without large tools or large amounts of wood. Students have only a few weeks to build the structure, but have roughly five class hours a week for the group of 24 to do so.
Shriver added that larger pieces of wood, such as two-by-fours, weren’t used as much. The sculpture itself is also much hollow than it may seem.
“It looks substantial, but it’s actually put together with people and there’s no equipment involved,” Shriver said.
The sculpture is built entirely on the field, and with the ingenuity and creativity of the students. Shriver ensures the sculpture is structurally sound and won’t collapse prematurely.
“I’m kinda underlying the whole thing as a cowboy engineer,” Shriver said.
At the event, people were offered the chance to write things on sticky notes and put them onto the structure before it was burnt. The audience stood back a distance behind a bamboo perimeter; however, once the structure had mostly collapsed the group roasted marshmallows by the fire. The time between the sculpture being set ablaze and collapsing was roughly twenty minutes.
The fire burned fast and hot. The audience could feel the heat roaring from over twenty feet away. People also watched from afar inside of their vehicles.
Cleanup for the event is relatively simple. Shriver said often there is simply a wheelbarrow of ash that needs to be moved, and it’s done on the following Monday.
The event has lots of meaning for Shriver, and came out of a desire to give students something they would remember for decades after graduation.
“It’s to get something for them to tell their kids about someday,” Shriver said. “This crazy thing they did in college.”
Shriver said that he often would see students throw away their projects after being done with them, so he sought to give them a memory they will never forget.
