Martin Levin
I received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. For
most of my career I taught high school math in Waldorf schools where
the pedagogy encourages the bridging of mathematics and art. I'm now
retired. The Platonic solids are quite simple geometric forms, and
yet, as one contemplates them and builds up the forms in one's mind,
they become quite captivating. By aligning two or more Platonic solids
with some order 3 axes coinciding and varying the relative sizes, one
finds an endless supply of wonderful geometric relationships, which I
explore in my geometric sculptures.
The five tetrahedra together have 20 vertices which form the
vertices of a regular dodecahedron; imagine it enveloping the
whole form. The 20 faces of the five tetrahedra form the faces of
a regular icosahedron; imagine it at the center of the whole form.
This model is used to prove that the rotation group of the
icosahedron is the group of even permutations of five objects.
This sculpture is hollow with 6 mm thick walls. I cast it in
bronze in two halves, and then welded the two halves together. I
experimented with modifications of the ancient lost wax method to
make the castings. Finish-grinding the concavities is challenging.