Divining Nature: An Elemental Garden Rebecca Kamen

October 1 - November 14, 2009
Reception and Catalog Signing, Saturday, October 17 5 - 7pm, Gallery talk at 6pm

Photo by Angie Seckinger
GreaterRestonArtsCenter is pleased to present Rebecca Kamen's Divining Nature: An Elemental Garden, a sculpture installation inspired by the periodic table of chemical elements. Kamen transforms the arts center's octagonal gallery into a spiral garden of luminous, white "flowers" representing the eighty-three naturally occurring elements. Each flower is comprised of white Mylar tiers supported on slender fiberglass stems. The number of tiers or petals corresponds to the element's orbital pattern while the number of stems is based on its electrons.
Beginning with the simplest elements attached to a column like vines clinging to a garden wall, the flowers rotate out and flow around the gallery floor in a mathematical pattern based on a Fibonacci spiral. As the flowers move farther away from the center they grow larger and more complex, illuminating both the beauty and meaning of the periodic table. An experienced collaborator, Kamen joined forces with architect Alick Dearie to assist with the installation drawings and composer Susan Alexjander who developed the shimmering soundscape.
While Kamen's garden of elements transforms the arts center's main gallery into a floating sea of pagoda-like forms, in an adjacent space the artist uses the geometric forms of the Platonic Solids to create wall-mounted sculptures inspired by the five original elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Cosmos.
Kamen's unique process based on wide ranging research into science, cosmology, spirituality, and philosophy yields sculptures that begin with complex concepts and transform into distilled objects of refined beauty.

More Information:
  • Watch Video: A studio visit with Rebecca Kamen by Terry Lowenthal
  • RebeccaKamen.com
  • Music of Susan Alexjander
  • The American Chemical Society loves the show!
  • See the Blog of the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
  • See the Observer News review too.
  • Northern Virginia Art Beat says, "They're playful exercises"
    		•  Related Education Programs:
  • Art with a Twist: Jane Franklin Dance Company [Video]


  • Catalog
    • Funded in part by the Arts Council of Fairfax County, supported by Fairfax County.
    GRACE programs are also supported in part by the Reston Community Center, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Generous support provided by Helen and Ronald Dunn


    RCC


    NEA     		 
    Special Thanks:
    Children’s Science Center
    Dan Grove