John Sims will present a lecture on MathArt
October 20, 2005
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA — John Sims, an artist, mathematician and activist who is internationally active in the areas of mathematical art, ethnomathematics and visual mathematics, will give a lecture, “Brains, Clocks and Flags: Journey of a Political MathArtist,” at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, in the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University Park campus. His lecture is sponsored by the Penn State School of Visual Arts’ Anderson Endowment Lecture Series.The lecture is free to the public.
The focus of Sims’ lecture will be the presentation of three projects: “Notes of a MathArtist,” where math and art are an important dimension of human cognition and embody the tension between creativity and analysis; “TimeSculpture,” which is a clock mapping of familiar objects that tell sculptural stories about space, conflict, support systems and time; and “Recoloration Proclamation,” a flag project that deals with issues of race, religion and corporate branding, which was the subject of national attention during its exhibition at Gettysburg College. The exhibition is currently the subject of a documentary film about the Confederate flag.
Sims, a native of Detroit, Michigan, is a conceptual artist, mathematician, curator and educator, who works in the areas of mathematical art, public timesculptures and icons of white supremacy. As a former coordinator of mathematics at Ringling School of Art and Design, he designed a mathematics curriculum for art students and curated the mathematical art exhibition, MathArt/ArtMath, due to travel nationally 2006. In the spring of 2004, he was invited to edit a special issue of International Review of African American Art called “Rhythm of Structure: MathArt in the African Diapora.” As an artist he has created a collection of installations called “JohnSimsProjects,” dealing with visual mathematics, time and sacred symbols. His TimeSculpture installation has been shown at DFN Gallery and Rush Arts and will go to Buenos Aires for a city-wide exhibition in 2007.
He has lectured on his work all over the country and internationally, including Hungary, Spain, Israel and Argentina. His work has been featured in Sculpture Magazine, Artbyte, Science News, and covered in major newspapers across the country, Currently he is working with Dread Scott on developing StudioRedFlag.org, a journal for art and politics. For more information on Sims, visit http://www.johnsimsprojects.com.
Contact: Sarah Schwartz, ses32@psu.edu