(KNSI) – Roughly 14,000 pounds of northern Minnesota iron ore was heated, turned to steel, and forged into the newest sculpture on the campus of St. John’s University.
The college is installing Berg XIX by Oklahoma-based artist Tom Joyce. Joyce was originally trained as a blacksmith and still uses iron and steel as his primary metal in the art world. His largest sculptures are at the Smithsonian, the September 11th Memorial Museum, and other big-city museums.
To make Berg XIX, Joyce heated the high-carbon steel to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, making it moldable. Joyce cut, twisted, and squeezed it under 5,500 tons of pressure until it became a bright orange mass of folds and curves.
Joyce says the final sculpture is meant to be the diametric opposite of the cold, harsh metal pulled from the ground.
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