2012 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Eve Torrence
Artists
Eve Torrence
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
Randolph-Macon College
Ashland, Virginia, USA
Statement
I love the symmetric beauty of polyhedra and enjoy creating models to study. Through the process of building a model I am able to truly understand its form. My curiosity about the configuration of the stellations of the dodecahedron led me to create this sculpture. I like to use color to help reveal the structure and patterns of an object.
Artworks
Great Ball of Fire
Craft Foam
2010
This sculpture is based on the third stellation of the dodecahedron. A stellation of a regular polyhedron is formed by extending
the faces until they intersect and enclose a region of space. The faces of the dodecahedron will intersect three times as they are extended,
forming the small stellated dodecahedron,
the great dodecahdron, and the great stellated dodecahedron.
Twelve identical pieces of craft foam were slotted
at the edge of each stellation and then tightly woven. This open skeleton allows one to follow each face to view the
intersections and the outline of
the dodecahedron and the three stellations.
Six colors of foam are used and parallel faces are the same color. Each of the five arms of each face intersects three others to
form 20 colorful "flames" in an icosahedral arrangement.