Artist Statement

Meredith Klein holds a BFA in Visual Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts and is in the process of completing a BA in mathematics at Rutgers University. She has recently been working through and researching the overlap of these two disciplines, and the ways that math is perceived in an arts context, and the way that art is perceived in a math context. She is working on a paper called “Groups and Symmetry,” which takes a look at the 17 possible two-dimensional symmetries, principally through the works of R.L.E. Schwartzenberger and M.C. Escher, a mathematician and an artist, respectively, who approached the same topic through their very distinct disciplines. Inspired by the Daina Taimina’s crocheted hyperbolic models, Meredith has also begun exploring model-making. “A = 10e^.038x” uses a simple exponential growth formula to generate a crochet pattern in which each value of x is a “round” and A is the number of stitches in the round. This particular equation was derived so that the execution of the pattern could be achieved in a set period of time, with stitches rationed evenly over the time. Contrasting bands mark off equal amounts of stitches, illustrating the power of exponential growth, and interpreting hyperbolic geometry through a tangible process of construction. “Cantor Set” is again a crocheted model, but this time of rapid decay. Based on the Cantor Set, which is generated when a unit interval has its inner third removed, and then each subsequent segment has it’s inner third removed as well, this piece illustrates how rapidly the set disappears, with the segments represented in green and the “take-outs” represented in red. Aside from her studies of math-art, Meredith also works in photography and mixed media.

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