Artist Celebrates the Opening of Arrupe Hall with Talk on Wisdom Site

It’s been hanging for almost a month in a prominent place in Rockhurst University’s new academic building, Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Hall.

But while the seven blue-hued concrete panels hanging above the entrance to the building’s auditorium are one of the most immediately visible and impressive features of Arrupe Hall, a Latin inscription beside it is only the beginning of the rich symbolism for the work and its connection to the University core value of wisdom. Last week Anne Lindberg, the creator of the work who for many years was based in Kansas City and whose work has been displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, visited campus for a blessing of Arrupe Hall and a discussion of the significance of those seven panels.

The basis for Lindberg’s illustration is a Proverbs verse from which the core value of wisdom is derived, “sapientia aedificavit sibi domum excidit columnas septem,” or “wisdom has built herself a home; she has hewn seven pillars.” The nature of wisdom in the context of the core value, she said, reminded her of another important resource.

“The place of water in our lives is critical; it’s a life-giving force that we must respect and preserve,” Lindberg said, before further illustrating the connection. “Wisdom — and you can replace the word ‘water’ for any of these — grows and changes, builds over time, is circulated through our history and our souls and is a universal principle.”

Following that line of thinking, Lindberg took hundreds of photographs of water from different locations, including the Atlantic Ocean near Montauk Point in New York, the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, the Hudson River, the Housatonic River in Connecticut and a pond in Iowa where Lindberg spent time growing up.

She chose seven of the photographs, each of which depicted a different state of water, from the agitation of ocean waves to the calm ripples of a rural pond, and converted the photos to black and white to augment the existing contrast in the photos.

Those files were rendered by computer software into topographic images that were then used to make custom casts for the 3-D concrete panels. Lindberg said the production method alludes to the pillars in the Proverbs verse being “hewn,” while the symbolism of the changing states of water and the gradient of the blue color make for a unique experience for its visitors.

“I believe that education is as ever-changing as water and wisdom,” she said. “So perhaps one panel will mean something to you one day and another will mean something else the next day.”

Lindberg’s work representing wisdom, the core value for the current academic year, joins two other core value reflection sites throughout campus: the statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola at the Cardoner River representing reflection and discernment and the heritage walkway, which stretches from the entrance of campus at Troost Avenue at 53rd Street through the labyrinth between the St. Ignatius Science Center and Van Ackeren halls to the big blue Adirondack chair at 53rd and the Paseo, which represents finding God in all things.