An artist’s chain-link sculpture has broken outside of the Doudna Fine Arts Center, on the corner of 7th Street and Hayes Avenue.

Art professor Jeff Boshart said the weakest link on the sculpture broke last week after the sculpture had been sitting outside in the dry heat.

The sculpture, created by visiting artist Jered Floan, is made from green wood, Floan said.

Green wood is wood that still has some moisture in it.

“When it dries out, the wood splits and cracks,” Floan said.

Knowing this, Boshart said both he and Floan knew this could happen.

In fact, Floan began to see signs of it happening before he was finished with the sculpture.

“Even before I was done, cracks were visible,” Floan said.

To try to prevent it from happening, Boshart said Floan treated the wood to try to keep it from happening.

“It’s a natural process when carving wood,” Boshart said. “Jered knew when he carved it that the wood could crack and split.”

However, Floan said he knew it was inevitable.

Last week, while Boshart was on vacation, people who park on Hayes Avenue noticed the chain was broken, Boshart said.

Boshart said those people reported it to the University Police Department as vandalism.

However, Boshart said there is no evidence that it was vandalism. Instead, he said it happened naturally.

“The people who park there didn’t know it was supposed to happen,” Boshart said. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

Floan, a graduate student at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, said he was originally told it was vandalized.

“I was scared,” Floan said. “In a public place like that, it can happen.”

The chain is attached to a wooden chainsaw on the tree, Boshart said. The chainsaw held up five or six links off the ground, he said.

Boshart said the chain could have also broken because of the strain it had by holding up five or six links off the ground.

“Any stress on the wood causes it to break,” Boshart said.

Boshart said the chain is fixable, and said he’ll fix it when he returns to campus.

Fixing it is rather simple, he said.

“I’m just going to wood glue it back together,” Boshart said.

While the wood glue acts as a temporary solution, Boshart said it is possible that the links could break again.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7942

or deneic@gmail.com.

A sculpture that was completed this summer was found damaged the week of July 4. It was originally reported as vandalism by staff members who park close to the sculpture, located at the south end of Buzzard Hall, but the problem was attributed to the wood

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