Eltanin
Eltanin, 1992, Bronze, Steel
Bathsheba L Grossman (American, born 1966)
#1992.0007.0001
Bathsheba Grossman is a sculptor who works with code and 3D printing technology to create work that often engages with mathematical concepts. The artist made Eltanin while enrolled in the MFA sculpture program at the University of Pennsylvania. Considered to be a "mathematical sculptor," Grossman made the design specifically for the physics department, installing it in 1992 on the southwest corner outside the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter. The artist says of her work: "It has the symmetry of a chiralized tetrahedron, which is one of my favorites, and I still think about this piece's four-part construction in my present work. The name is the name of the star: Dragon's Eye." Gamma Draconis (which is also called Eltanin) is a star in the Northern constellation of Draco. The star gets its name from the idea that it represents the eye within the cluster of stars that form the shape of a dragon.
