Later this month, local artist Andrew Nigh, 47, will preside over the finale of Fire Up the Fields, a Burning Man-inspired event at the Sculpture Fields at Montague Park.
Now in its fifth year, Fire Up the Fields will include a 3D light show, music and dance performances and entertainment by the Chattanooga Fire Cabaret, a troupe of performers whose skills range from acrobatics to fire eating.
The event's climax comes compliments of Nigh, whose colossal wooden sculpture onsite that night won't be complete until it goes up in flames.
We caught up with Nigh recently at his woodshop in Wildwood, Georgia, where he had already constructed a 5-foot replica of the 40-foot-tall effigy he has planned for Fire Up the Fields. He'll construct the final version two weeks before the Oct. 22 event. During that time, visitors may see the short-lived structure among the permanent fixtures at the 33-acre park, which is home to more than 40 large-scale sculptures by artists from around the world.
Here are highlights from our interview.
— He's a woodworker by trade.
"My grandfather and uncle gave me my first impressions about woodworking," Nigh says. "I only saw them once or twice a year, but I looked forward to spending time with them. My uncle was a high school shop teacher, so he always had cool projects around."
During his college years, Nigh worked parttime at cabinet shops. After college, he opened his own woodworking shop in Dayton, Tennessee.
"I lived up there a few years before migrating to Chattanooga," he says. He moved to Wildwood in 2016.
Nigh says he steers away from kitchen cabinetry and similar large-scale projects, preferring "smaller, one-off pieces I usually design myself" or with input from a client. He also makes art panels and custom canvas stretchers for area artists.
He sees fire sculpture as a counterweight to his day job.
"Woodworking is very precise," he says. "You have to have the perfect finish, the perfect look, the perfect measurements.
"With fire sculpture, the end result is consumption by flame. It's more freeing and less stressful."
— His degree is in biology.
Nigh says his degree, conferred by Bryan College in 2001, may be an odd fit for what became his vocation, but "I'm grateful for that education. It gives me a better understanding of the world around me and an appreciation for nature, conservation and environmental issues."
Because his sculpture burns are "giant carbon and ash emitters," Nigh says he tries to offset the pollutants by acquiring wood as safely as possible. He avoids woods containing adhesives and plywood, which release toxic fumes and carcinogens when burned. "I use clean, raw lumber," he says.
His aptitude for science also helps him construct his fire sculptures.
"Most construction projects are designed to not burn," he says. "It's a rare occurrence when everything about it is meant to burn. I think about that when I'm constructing it -- where I put the strong points and weak points. Air flow is a really important factor, the pyrokinetics of the piece, the way it interacts with air. As I'm designing and constructing the piece, I keep in mind what's going to do what."
— Before there were sculptures, there were simply wood scraps Nigh needed to dispose of.
"It started after the wood-burnings at my studio became a little more elaborate," he says of the fire art. "I'd have folks over."
Around the same time, a friend invited him to a regional burn festival in Asheville, North Carolina, known as Transformus.
"The whole focus of that is art and music centered around a Saturday night bonfire," Nigh says. "They build a giant artistic sculpture and burn it down. It was the first time I was exposed to large-scale fire sculpture. The very next year, I put in a design for an effigy for that year's burn, and they ended up going with it. I quickly found I enjoyed doing large-scale pieces. Around 2009, I got a little more serious about doing this not just for fun but part of what I would define as my work."
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Andrew Nigh works on his sculpture "Phantasm" on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. The piece will be set on fire for a sculpture burn on October 22 at the Sculpture Fields.Olivia Ross
— His talent has blazed at Burning Man.
After he'd done a couple of effigies for Transformus events in Asheville, the nonprofit's board nominated Nigh for Burning Man's CORE: Circle of Regional Effigies, which surround the main burn in the Nevada desert.
"I built the one with my crew from Asheville to represent Transformus," he says.
His burner name, a nicknaming ritual at the counterculture festival, is Winter Sun.
— Burn festivals were transformative for Nigh.
"Attending these festivals where fire was the key element really sparked my creativity," he says. "I started doing the main effigy burns at events. I had larger and larger budgets to work with. My scraps and found wood pieces started to take on a lot more form and intention."
To date, he has done about 65 sculpture burns, ranging from wedding receptions to winter solstice parties "and definitely quite a few Burning Man-style events," he says.
— He has been part of Sculpture Fields events since 2017.
"(Board member) Tom Bartoo approached me about it before the space was even established about having fire sculpture as part of their opening event (in 2016)," Nigh says.
They worked out the logistics the next year.
"One area in particular had a nice high berm that was really well suited for a fire sculpture," he remembers. "I built it off-site down the road at a friend's studio on Main Street. We implemented the burn on that first anniversary. A lot of people liked it. A lot of people showed up."
Bartoo, founder and president of Method Architecture, says he enjoys Nigh's behind-the-scenes process.
"It's intriguing to watch him build this thing and work through the thought processes and details," Bartoo says. "He takes great measures to think through what happens. It's an art form in itself in the way he thinks through the design and how it's going to ignite."
Last year's burn went through distinct stages, Bartoo recalls. "It was almost like seeing different seasons during the burn," he says. "You kind of witness the life of this thing as it burns. It has a beginning and an end."
— Nigh says this year's Sculpture Fields burn is a fairly simple design.
"It's kind of stark in its simpleness," he says. "It's a stark, black, razor-looking thing. Once you see it burning against the sky, it will look alive, a lot more organic. It will look like it will breathe a while before it disappears."
— He enjoys seeing how onlookers respond to the burns.
"Fire itself is an often overlooked medium of art that moves people and speaks to people on so many different levels," he says.
"It's very primal, just the array of sensory input you get from fire -- visual, smell, heat of course, the sounds it makes. It really affects all dimensions of our senses. It's constantly changing and constantly evolving. The ephemeral nature of it makes it unique."
— He feels no regrets when his work is gone.
"A lot of people ask me, 'Aren't you sad to build it and then burn it down?' It's never been that way. I'm always thinking 'How is this going to deconstruct itself -- when this component fails and causes this to fall?'
"My brain is usually formulating ideas for the next burn while the current one is still on fire. I'm watching and observing different elements, thinking, 'Oh, I like that' or 'Oh, I don't like that.'"
— He cleans up when it's over.
Nigh says the ashes from his burns, even from the biggest sculptures, will fit "in a 55-gallon drum or smaller." He has a magnetic ring on wheels to pick up the nails and screws that held the sculpture together.
"In some cases, I've even reused them," he says.
If you go
— What: Fire Up the Fields, a Burning Man-inspired event with a 3D light show, music, dance, food trucks and sculpture burn.
— When: 3-11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22.
— Where: Sculpture Fields at Montague Park, 1800 Polk St.
— Admission: Free (bring your own seating); $90 VIP (includes seating, two drinks, preferred parking).
— For more information: 423-266-7288, sculpturefields.org
Staff File Photo / Woodworker and artist Andrew Nigh puts together a wooden sculpture in Coolidge Park in 2011, to be burned at the finale of the RiverRocks festival.