Portal by Nicole Beck

Nicole Beck (American, b. 1957)

Portal, 2021

Sponsored by The Opus Group, The Lampariello Family in memory of Lauren Lampariello, International Contractors, Inc. and the Bronge Family.

Presented by The City of Elmhurst Public Arts Commission, September 2021

Interpretation provided by the Elmhurst Art Museum

Portal is a welded stainless steel diamond-shaped torus ring. The brilliant insets of dichroic glass shapes punctuate the whorl with colorful and dynamic energy that represents Elmhurst’s diverse and interconnected community.

Portal creates a dynamic that draws residents and visitors into the nexus of downtown Elmhurst, just a stone’s throw from the Elmhurst Metra Station, Police Station, Post Office, Public Library, History Museum, Elmhurst University, Elmhurst Art Museum, and Wilder Park, specifically, at the North Larch pocket park and West 1st Street.

The sculpture was created to bring joyful color and vital energy to the community. The shape implies a portal, a pathway, or a personal view into Elmhurst. The science behind toroids is fascinating and represents a holoflux of information, that consciousness is inherent in the structure of the universe.  Entropy, gravity, spin, and momentum all have a play in the expansion and compression of a toroidal axis.  It is the most fundamental shape of existence- the basic geometry of energy flow. It is a vector of equilibrium, the blueprint upon which nature forms energy into matter. We can observe it everywhere- in atoms, cells, seeds, flowers, trees, animals, humans, hurricanes, planets, galaxies, and even the cosmos.  It is expressed in essential electromagnetic fields and the golden spiral.

On a purely aesthetic plane, the different shapes and colors of the dichroic glass represent diversity embedded within a structure that is cyclical and inclusive.