[Top plaque:]
"Music of the Spheres"
Artist: Martha Jackson Jarvis
Commissioned by Fannie Mae
Dedicated July 10, 2003
[Center plaque:]
Fannie Mae: Van Ness Sculpture Project
Martha Jackson-Jarvis
The design for the Fannie Mae Sculpture Project as a vital sculpture
environment that engages visitors as they visually physically experience the mysteries of the dynamic public spaces. My sculpture harnesses the energy and verve of the city through strategic placement of seven orbs entitled Music of the Spheres.
Music of the Spheres consist of seven mosaic spheres that create an imaginative environment and establishes a functional poetic space to be used by a diverse audience.
Historically, Music of the Spheres is a system of ideas and theories about the order of the universe that have traveled through time and cultures, to inform our lives, dating from the Babylonian premise that the cosmos is comprised of seven spheres to Pythagoras, who in 542 B.C. founded the idea that the universe could be explained in musical terms with numbers. Further, Plato describes the celestial music where the paths of the heavenly bodies correspond to a specific musical tone. Later, it evolves into Kepler's
harmonies of the world and the birth of modern astrophysics, the mysterious concept of Music of the Spheres has influenced art, science, and the mythology and is best described by the Shakespeare who states... "Such harmony is in mortal souls!"...the sway of these influences still has the power to inform contemporary humanity and provide extraordinary fare for contemplation.
Music of the Spheres is a gift to the community. It functions as a poetic place of pause and contemplation between the cycles of busy urban life. In time, Music of the Spheres will continue to resonate in the hearts and minds of humanity.
[Bottom plaque has the contents of the center plaque in Braille.]
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