Visual Art

Anonymous Art

mysterious pylon sculpture shows up on Chippewa River

Trevor Kupfer, photos by Trevor Kupfer |

For the past month or so, a few of the minds at Volume One have been boggled by what appeared to be a distant wooden sculpture on the Chippewa River. As seen from downtown’s Madison Street, one could faintly see a weird bird-looking structure right on the bank. Well we just couldn’t take it anymore, so I made the trek down there by traversing the bank from Family Video’s parking lot – hoping to see the sculpture, and (hopefully) some initials carved in there so we can investigate the creator. Well what I originally imagined to be a bird is, in actuality, a weird yellow-faced animal with pointy ears, a huge nose/snout, and round white eyes. It’s about six feet tall, appears to be a section of tree somehow secured over an old pile-on, and was at least partially made with a chainsaw. Sadly, there are no initials to be found (unless they’re on the river side – I didn’t want to get wet checking). Every so often we see people fishing down there (and the cooler, fire pit, and chair that were also down there act as further proof), so maybe a few of them felt particularly artistic and made this thing. No matter who did – and we’d love to know! – it’s a great little piece of eye candy and addition to the community. Keep on whittling, whomever you are.