Title: Hypocycloids and Spirographs
Artist: Nancy Blum
Material: 1/2" – 1" stainless steel, stained cement
Twelve stainless steel spirograph inspired designs mounted over panels with scientific notations and formulas sandblasted into stained cement.
The term "spirograph" was coined to describe images formed by the path of two circles revolving around one another. In geometric language, these are more specifically, hypocloids (‘a special plane curve generated by the trace of a fixed point on a small circle that rolls within a larger circle’), hypocycloids, epicycloids and epitrochoids (circle rolling outside a circle). These ‘paths’ are described using mathematical notations that are quite simple, elegant and etched on the walls behind the designs. The function of the work is to make a connection between a beautiful image and the conceptual thinking behind it. As someone stands on the platform or passes the station on the train, they will immediately be struck with a dual understanding of beauty and its underpinnings in math and science.
Nancy Blum is a Brooklyn based sculptor and artist who is well known for her public artwork commissions across the United States.
Many of her large-scale works carry botanical motifs to represent continuity and growth. Blum empowers the organic and the ephemeral through her work and propels the connectedness of all beings in the world through not only aesthetic beauty but also a high level of craftsmanship. Apart from her public art commission projects in various cities’ transit systems, Blum has also participated in solo and group exhibitions.
Blum was the recipient of 2006 Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant in New York.
