Hyperbolic Five

[Triple Zero]

I invite you all to read this cool article about the number five, pentagons and poetry.

http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_09_01_03.html


Helaman Ferguson's unruly hyperbolic quilt, sewn together from pentagons of cloth, refuses to lie flat.

In his artwork Hyperbolic 5, Ferguson has created a particularly striking representation of the hyperbolic plane. It shows necklaces of pentagonal tiles going around a central pentagon in alternating gold fives and mirror images of gold fives. The gold "5" is a reference to a famous painting by Charles Demuth (1883–1935) called The Figure 5 in Gold. Demuth's painting was itself inspired by an imagist poem, "The Great Figure," by his friend and colleague William Carlos Williams (1883–1963).

"My particular inspiration for Hyperbolic 5 was both Williams and Demuth, especially Williams," Ferguson says. "Somehow I felt Williams' verbal images were even more powerful than the painting." A QuickTime video clip presenting Williams' 1928 poem "The Great Figure" is available at http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/video/williams.html.


Hyperbolic 5 by Helaman Ferguson. Courtesy of Helaman Ferguson.

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be sure to check out that video, even though it's very low bitrate and blurry