How on Earth will we say goodbye to Polaris? George Ferrandi’s exhibit at Susquehanna University’s Lore Degenstein Gallery, Once More & Hopeful Stars, posed that question through the centuries-old Japanese art form of Nebuta — with students contributing their own illuminated sculpture to honor Earth’s current North Star.
“This exhibition was unique in so many ways,” said Laura Libert, director of the Lore Degenstein Gallery. “It provided the community with unique objects we don’t typically see in the gallery: monumental, yet fragile, illuminated sculptures made using a Japanese technique called Nebuta.”
Made from a bamboo and wire frame covered with the Japanese paper washi, which is hand-painted with vibrant designs, the massive sculptures are illuminated lantern floats. Over a seven-week course, Ferrandi taught the Nebuta technique to Susquehanna students, whose sculpture joined Ferrandi’s other pieces — each one embodying a star that will serve as Earth’s North Star at some point over a 26,000-year cycle.
Kaiya Reisinger ’28, a double major in studio art and psychology from Kingston, Pennsylvania, reflected on how the course enabled her to expand her skillset.
“George was an exceptional instructor who guided us through every step of the project,” Reisinger said. “I learned papermaking techniques as well as how to shape and bend wire in different ways. Overall, it was a really rewarding experience.”
Describing herself “floored” after seeing the Milky Way for the first time, Ferrandi sought a children’s book to learn more about stars. The Stars: A New Way to See Them by H.A. Ray served as inspiration for her exhibition that examined how “a slight wobble” in the Earth’s rotation slowly changes over time which star serves as the North Star.
“Finding out that our North Star changes just blew my mind, because in our cultural imagination, we think of it as one thing in the universe that is fixed,” Ferrandi explained. “And so, this exhibition is kind of a reverie in thinking about how humans will commemorate that transition.”
The sculpture Ferrandi and the students made is part of a larger project by Ferrandi that brings communities together to ritualize how future generations may say goodbye to Polaris and hello to Gamma Cephei, which will take over the role in approximately 1,000 years and reign for several centuries.
