Tiina Kraav
Artists
Tiina Kraav
Lecturer of mathematics education, artist
Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tartu
Tartu, Estonia
Statement
Tiina Kraav is a lecturer of mathematics education at the University of Tartu, but also has an art degree from the Pallas University of Applied Sciences. As a lecturer, she is interested in incorporating various active learning methods, especially paper folding into mathematics education, and as an artist, she works with different mediums like alternative ways of printmaking, machine embroidery, mathematical origami, and their intersections.
Artworks
Unfolded heart
20 x 20 cm
machine embroidery on paper
2022
The heart, folded from 20 cm x 20 cm paper, is unfolded again, photographed and the result converted to a 20 cm x 20 cm cross-stitch design. The perpendicular fold lines are in a dialogue with the very nature of the cross stitch - the perpendicular threads.
The midperpendicular and the diagonal are simple mathematical concepts that can be used to refer, through origami, to what is basic and elementary in life - the heart. The motif of the heart and the lines that emerge as a result of the unfolding allow a mathematical and seemingly non-emotional expression of a highly emotional state of mind.
The work also illustrates that any mathematical model takes on different shades in real life in order to be applied in a purposeful way.