About the Art
Barbara Grygutis’s 1993 installation Garden of Constants, found just outside of The Ohio State University’s Dreese Laboratory, reflects on the relationship between math, science and art by offering mathematical symbols as objects of aesthetic beauty. As Grygutis once said in an interview, the installation is “a garden that invites and encourages us to ponder the meaning of numbers in our lives.” One part of the artwork is a series of large sculptures in the shapes of the 10 Arabic numerals that serve as the basis for the written representation of mathematical concepts. The sculptures vary based on their mathematical properties, creating a puzzle of sorts for viewers. As Professor Bradley D. Clymer explained, “All of the turquoise numbers are noncomposite numbers… Perfect squares and perfect cubes are lying down to be viewed from above. Perfect powers of two are constructed from granite because they represent digit places for binary number codes.”
The second element of Garden of Constants is embedded into the stonework around the larger sculptures. Grygutis surrounded the towering numerals with small gray bricks, each with a mathematical constant chiseled into its face such as “c,” the speed of light (299,792,458 meter); “2.7182…,” Euler’s number (the base of natural logarithms); and “ε0,” the electric constant. These constants that give Grygutis’s installation its name, were chosen for inclusion in the artwork based on their significance to modern mathematics and science by faculty members in Ohio State’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Collection of The Ohio State University. Funded through the Ohio Percent for Art program.
Material
Stoneware, concrete, bronze, granite, painted, cut and formed steel
Location
Outside Dreese Laboratories
About the Artist
Barbara Grygutis was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1946. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona in 1968 and a Master of Fine Arts from the same university in 1971. Grygutis has commissioned many public art pieces around the world. Her work began with clay and ceramics, but she has expanded to large-scale projects, often made of metal and incorporating lighting. She is passionate about using art to foster understanding and believes that art has the potential to connect, educate and cultivate joy. One work is STAND, a twenty-foot-tall sculpture in Lexington, Kentucky, commemorating the passing of the 19th Amendment. Made of aluminum and integrated lighting, it features five suffragettes and celebrates the bravery and achievements of those women while being a reminder of the work still to be done in the fight for equality. Another notable work includes the Garden of Constants, located at The Ohio State University, which emphasizes the work done in the engineering department. Others include PORTAL in Venice, Italy and LUMINARIAS in Greeley, Colorado.
