The artist’s idea
Carbon atoms
and photosynthesis
Christine Bourdette’s artistic concept draws on wind, plant forms and the building blocks of life, reflecting the school’s environmental science focus.
One takes its form from a carbon atom. The other represents photosynthesis. Both use moving elements to connect the artwork with the school’s focus on science and alternative energy.
Read Christine Bourdette’s full artist statement
Elemental Whirligigs acknowledges the school’s environmental science focus as well as its dependence on alternative forms of energy generation. The starting point for these two sculptures was to consider how the artworks could utilize the wind and inspiration came from plant forms, growth processes, and from some of the most basic chemical elements found on Earth. These basic elements of life and growth evolved into designs for two sculptures with wind-driven elements: one based on the carbon atom; the other based on the process of photosynthesis.
The atomic structure of carbon atoms inspired the Carbon Atom Whirligig design. Carbon is one of the six most common elements in the known universe and is the element on which all life is based. Four stationary hoops represent electron orbits, with the blue spheres as the electrons. In between each stationary hoop is a rotating “nucleus orbit,” with the small purple and orange discs representing the protons and neutrons in the atoms’ nuclei. The blue hemispheres on the rotating hoops represent additional electrons, and power the rotation of the “nucleus orbits” –at least when the wind kicks up.
Photosynthesis Whirligig represents the essential process of photosynthesis. It includes symbolic icons for the sun, photons (sunlight), oxygen, and carbon dioxide molecules, with green leaf-like forms containing the symbols for CO2 molecules that plants capture from the atmosphere. Some of these design elements move: the “Sun spinner” at the top spins wiggles back and forth; the “Photon twirler” with its yellow discs and cups rotates; the “Oxygen wind vane” functions as a weather vane, indicating wind direction; and the six “CO2 spinners” spin, propeller-like, inside the leaves of the plant form.
Christine Bourdette · Elemental Whirligigs