By Lane Wright
Not many students know much about the brilliant white sculpture near the Spencer W. Kimball Tower, the one some students refer to as “The Tree of Life.”
Standing 14 feet tall, 14 feet long and 15.5 feet wide, “The Tree of Wisdom,” as it was officially named, is made of 10 evenly spaced white concrete panels, each weighing about two tons. Each erect slab is curved in such a way to cause a different appearance when viewed from different positions. From one angle, all 10 sections line up at the bottom and the top fans out symmetrically left to right. From another angle the top seems to align itself and the bottom spreads out.
The class of 1975 donated the sculpture as a gift to BYU to celebrate its centennial anniversary.
“It was kind of a ground-breaking sculpture at the time because of the symbolism,” said Gordon Daines, university archivist.
It was different from anything else on campus. Most of the art displayed on campus at the time didn”t really leave room for personal interpretation, Daines said.
“The sculptor wanted people to get at least two meanings out of it, one being roots sinking into spiritual ground and the other being branches that are rising up, pointing heavenward,” Daines said. “It”s a sculpture that makes you think.”
According to a 1975 article in The Daily Universe, the sculptor, Frank K. Nackos, said he wanted people to get their own personal meaning out of the sculpture. He said the best way to view it is to “walk up to it, through it, around it. Get the feel of it.”
Megan Keffer, a sophomore from Vidor, Texas, said viewers could look at the sculpture from a distance and it would look like a tree. The tree represents wisdom because wisdom starts off small like a tree, with a person not having very much of it. Then, over time, the wisdom grows.
“As you walk around there”s like the different layers in it,” Keffer said. “It”s this constantly changing, moving thing as you go around it. And [with] wisdom in that way you”re changing and growing.”
As Keffer walked to the other side of the sculpture she saw the sculpture transform.
“I”ve seen it from this direction but I”ve never thought of it as the roots until I thought that from the top, the view from that angle, it”s branching out, and then you come to this side it”s the roots that are coming down,” Keffer said.
“I think it”s amazing,” said Ali Thatcher, a sophomore from The Dalles, Ore. Thatcher, like some other students, was not very familiar with “The Tree of Wisdom” sculpture, but appreciated the beauty nonetheless.
“I know it”s been around for a long time,” said Alex Bigney, a sophomore from Woodland Hills, Utah.”When I was a little kid I used to run in between the parts.”
Bigney also commented on the symbolic nature of the art.
“This is obviously a place where we learn,” Bigney said. “That could be a symbol for the school being a tree where we get wisdom from.” “I designed it to be simple and symbolic,” Nackos said, in a news article. “I want it to convey a spirit of optimism, strength and of reaching upward.”
