Extending through five floors or the seventy feet height of the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research, three hanging columns made of hundreds of laser-cut aluminum plates form the centerpiece of the Medical Research atrium facing the atrium’ glass facade. Experienced as three separate sections in the building, the entire sculpture can be viewed as a single line through the glass façade from the exterior of the building. The sculptures suggest that the genetic structures which are the subject of the facilities research have become geologic in scale. Through pattern and repetition, the sculpture is ultimately transparent, the product of digital design and material fabrication. The sculptures transparent structure allow light from the atrium east facing glazing, to fill the sculptures with light. At dusk or on cloudy days the LED light is slightly overpowered by sunlight, leaving a blush of color on the sculpture's surface, while the sculpture is saturated in more vibrant colored light. Like science, the sculptures set up a context for the atrium where we peer through one structure to glimpse another.
