Dragon Tail: Byoung Tak Mun

Our interest in Byoung Tak Muns proposal was related to the awesome scope of the project--he was looking for a site for a ninth dragon tail. He had completed eight others around the world, in sites that included Korea, Belgium, Australia, Italy, France, Germany--but not one yet in the United States. He had been invited to do projects in the United States before, but had never been granted a visa. Now he had a wife, a baby and a house--so he was a better candidate for a U.S. Visa. With only a two-week window to complete the project, he jumped in, quickly welding an elaborate 30 foot rebar spiral, with triangular webbing. Once the steel structure was completed, we literally had to screw it out of the sculpture yard, using a forklift, the large metal wheels off the Big Bird, and a series of 2x4 stilts. We gathered wood from recycle yards and the students helped Byoung Tak lace it through the structure. The site in the pond prevented risks of climbing, but increased logistic problems, making a much larger crane a necessity. Luckily B& L crane company took pity on us, and loaned us a huge crane, and the operators donated their time as well. Our grounds crew cast footings and drained the pond, and the crane lifted the footings and the tail in place! The reflections, scale and materials are amazing. The dragon in Korea symbolizes nature, which due to mans excesses such as global warming and oil spills is wreaking havoc. One visualizes the ever-shrinking world with nine dragons buried within and only their tails spiraling above ground!

May 2010