Constructional Ideas

There is a stainless-steel pylon in front of Harkness Commons now; workmen put it up over Christmas. It is officially called a "construction," and its sculptor, Richard Lippold, has some interesting things to say about it.

Lippold says that his pylon is really a "worldtree," a "three-dimensional statement of the world unity idea." The main branches of Lippold's tree are "reaching to the four points of the compass," its trunk digs down into the earth, its extremities are "still growing, unclouded, in space." The whole thing symbolizes "continuous growth."

Lippold's pylon and his ideas about it are among the few cheerful things to turn up so far in what looks like a remarkably cheerless new year. There is something very ingratiating about, a man who can detach himself from reality in a world were reality is terribly present in every newspaper, a world which might be far better off if it stopped worrying about atomic piles and concentrated on putting up pylons. Lippold asks that his sculpture get an annual polishing. It is an undemanding request in what has become a frighteningly demanding world, and we hope the pylon gets some fine scouring.