CHRYSALIS

2022

Photo By Alan Tansey
Photo By Alan Tansey
Photo By Alan Tansey
Photo By Alan Tansey
Photo By Alan Tansey
Photo By Alan Tansey
Photo By Alan Tansey

CHRYSALIS

2022

Alumni Hall, NYU Langone Medical Center
New York, NY

1436 powder coated stainless steel spheres, 1102 stainless steel cables, custom hardware
12’ 7″ W x 38’ 9″ L x 12’ 2” H

Collection: NYU Langone Public Art Program
Program Curator: Katherine Meehan
Architect: Ennead
Installation: Chris Powers, KC Fabrications

The atoms of our body, as well, flow in and away from us. We, like waves and like all objects, are a flux of events; we are processes – Carlo Rovelli

Commissioned for the newly renovated Alumni Hall at NYU Langone Medical Center, CHRYSALIS is inspired by the interdisciplinary context of Complexity Theory. The sculpture harnesses a self-contained formation to emphasize the temporality of complex, adaptive biological systems in a gesture of relational moments. Dynamic systems under constant change, complex adaptive systems exist in a process of perpetual unfolding, offering a vision of emergence and adaptation within relational feedback loops.

Taking Complexity Theory into the sculpture’s digital modeling, the piece premiers a new studio-developed algorithm. Augmenting this algorithmic process with a hand-based approach, every point in space is then digitally sculpted by the artist before its final physical manifestation.

CHRYSALIS embodies a space of ‘becoming’, where the process of developing unfolds over time, connecting a place of healing and science to our celestial and molecular selves.