gallery: bathsheba grossman

“The universe is orderly and friendly and beautiful. Structure is this lovely, versatile thing.”

“It’s either right or it’s wrong. It’s either elegant or not elegant. In math, those are actual properties. Everyone agrees.”

24 c b a by RavenHanna sculpture givenform. are anexampleofdigital Grossman’s metalartworks structures, Bathsheba Based onmathematical structure andorder, yet theirsymmetries arehardto They darkishmetal. have of satisfyinglyheavy tile thing.” friendly andbeautiful.Structureisthislovely, versa- aware of—fororder. The universeisorderlyand tone.“Itgratifiesaneedmostpeoplearen’t itative She speaksquickly, accurately, andwithan author- human mind,” Grossmansaysofhersculptures. rollin.Grossmanmakesartpeoplewant. ees she watched requestsfromotherMicrosoftemploy- software, business buffsfordevelopingMS-DOS Mark Zbikowski,famoustocomputergeeksand marketing. After sellingasculpturetoMicrosoft’s busdrivers,andmaildeliverers. barmaids, secretaries, buy them.Inthisway, shehassoldon thespotto People atthem,loveand holdthem,stare inch sculptures,thebabiesofhercollection. metal ever shegoes.Sheshowsstrangershertwo- Bathsheba Grossmancarriesaroundherartwher- except a. areshownactualsize, Sculptures Quintron Antipot Quintrino “I think they say something important about the about “I thinktheysaysomething important The sculpturesthemselvesaretheirownbest Her sculpturesriseintwistsandarch intoknots 25 “I lovedit,” shesays.“Ilikeavoidingambiguity. It’s mations, youaredrawnin,mesmerized. grasp. Asyouattempttotracethelabyrinthinefor- of people who don’t know anything about mathor about of peoplewhodon’tknowanything arenotputoff.“Aquantitatively-challenged lot ment andaccuracy. After threeyearsofHauer’s Hauer, aGermanprofessor whoprizedmeasure- sculpted nudemodelsunderthedirectionofErwin university generaleducationrequirements.She agrees.”Everyone not elegant.Inmath,thoseareactualproperties. either rightorit’swrong.It’selegant tradition bypursuingadegreeinmathematics. parents. At Yale University, sheshirkedthefamily hood inMassachusetts withEnglishprofessor of interest.” sees thattheyare ways, butalmosteverybody lot ofrawappeal.People approach themindifferent science buythesethings,” shesays.“There’s a Grossman’s introductiontoartcamethrough Although hersculptureslookmathematical,the Grossman grewupinamiddle-classneighbor-

symmetry | volume 02 | issue 07 | september 05 gallery: bathsheba grossman

instruction, she visited his workshop and saw his ner, if directions were given to the printer in an sculptural renderings of minimal surfaces and sym- appropriate Computer Aided Design (CAD) format. metrical shapes. “I walked in a math major, and Immediately sensing the power this new technique when I walked out my life was changed,” she says. held for her work, Grossman devoted a month to “‘If that’s sculpture, I want to be an artist!’ I thought, learning to use CAD software. She never looked back. ‘I want to go on in sculpture. I want to sculpt True to her classical sculpture training, Grossman’s this stuff.’” current process starts with modeling clay. “It’s like Grossman knew what she wanted to do, but she a figure-eight-shaped blackboard,” she says while needed training. She finished her math degree, holding a softball size piece-greenish, bulky but then headed to the University of Pennsylvania to earn carefully smoothed, and formed into a knotted struc- an MFA in sculpture. In art school, she learned ture. “I can draw whatever I want on it. I can put the laborious process of making sculptures by hand, a design on it to show the structure. I want to pull taking them to the foundry, and casting them into out the things that are elegant. I want to find out metal. She realized with dismay that, by using this what exactly it is that interests me about this.” lengthy process, she could only make a few per year. She searches for a way to maintain the basic Then on a fateful day in the late 1990s, Grossman structure she has modeled, but somehow camouflage discovered a then-new technology called 3D print- it in details. “Everyone understands a figure-eight ing. A few companies were pioneering the procedure, knot, and still I hope this is going to be a profound which uses lasers to mark areas in a resin block. object,” she says. “It’s so simple anyone can under- Areas touched by a laser turn hard and can be sep- stand it, and yet you can stare at it for hours and arated from the virgin medium. She learned that still have no idea what is really going on.” almost any 3D object could be sculpted in this man- Grossman says her sculptures are based on

d Metatron e Soliton f Nexus g Metatrino

Sculptures are shown actual size.

26 Sculpture haslaggedbehind. Sculpture pages andslides.Musichasalsobecomedigital. theirimagescopiedtocountlessbooks, digital, Paintings became easier. of printingmadetheprocess and couldbecopied,sheexplains, buttheadvent doing it.Languagewasalwaysreadyfordigitization sculpture.Alltheartsare a newhorizon:digital sculpturesarriveatherdoor.metal Weighty,company thatcandirectlylaserprintmetal. filetoa satisfied shetransfers theelectronic data aroundthreemonthstocomplete. Once takes program. Modelingthegeometries iscomplex and sketch, thepossibilitiesinCAD shetackles is mathematical.” way,” shesays.“What isbeautifulconvergestowhat relatively simpleequations.“Strangely, itworksthat assumes thathersculpturescouldbereducedto not math.Althoughshedoesn’tattemptit, fromanartaesthetic,but thattheirexecution isborn mathematicalidea, pointgroups,avery symmetry Grossman marvels atthisprocess.Initshesees Grossman marvels As Grossmanexplores thepotential ofherclay 27 “I “We’re next totheGutenberg currentlystanding body candownloadherdesignsandhavethem body I’m doingiscreatingthedesign.” cally elegantsculptures. the complexities ofherartistically andmathemati- And anysentientbeingislikelytobecharmed by are asentientbeing,youwillknowthatthisisart.” says Grossman,“whereveritisontheearth,ifyou ofherdesigns.“Inathousandyears,”immortality have thesatisfactionofhavingseenthiscoming.” money outofit.What mattersitthatintheendI Anditdoesn’tmatterwhether Imake that important. says, butit’scoming,andgoingtoberevolutionary. in50—she shop. Maybenotin20years—certainly printed, inanysizeandmaterial,atthelocalcopy ing ‘youknow, we’reontosomething here.’ It’s press watching thefirstBiblecomeoffandthink- happen tobemakingobjects,butthecoreofwhat “I’m notreallymakingobjects,” Grossmansays. What alsomattersintheendisartitself, Grossman looks forward tothedaywhenany- Grossman looksforward

symmetry | volume 02 | issue 07 | september 05