ON VIEW THRU DECEMBER 2, 2023: “Martha Friedman: Floating Thoughts” is a temporary public art installation of framed rubber artworks at the newly opened Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering Science at Rice University. The New York-based sculptor’s multimedia practice incorporates choreography, printmaking, drawing, cast and poured rubber, mold-blown glass, plaster, wax, and concrete to create works that encompass her interdisciplinary interests.

The history of science and the material properties of rubber inform her body of work and for this installation, are inspired by the drawings of Nobel Prize–winning neuro-anatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934). Martha Friedman translates human neurons into shapes adapted from the historic understanding of bodily processes, while referencing the sensations of our physical, lived experience.

This installation was organized by Alison Weaver of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University.