307 Westlake Avenue
Seattle, Washington
Linda Beaumont
Labyrinth, Angels Dancing on the Head of a Pin, Life Line, 2004
Laminated glass, painted steel
(Images © Linda Beaumont, 2004)

According to the artist, the two sections of Labyrinth in front of the main entrance to the SBRI Building are made "of light and color, with a rhythm that recalls stained glass windows. They glow in the morning light and wash color onto people as they enter the building. At night they shimmer and project their colors outward." The specific order of colors in this work is derived directly from a chromographic representation of the genetic sequence of the Leishmania parasite. Leishmania, one of the parasites studied at SBRI, causes a disease called leishmaniasis, which affects 12 million people every year. Tucked into the primary images are nodes of color and electron microscopic images of disease-causing organisms.

The shadow boxes in the Thomas Street windows, Angels Dancing on the Head of a Pin, are intended to "look at the face of the diseases that SBRI is working to eradicate, honor the lives of those that live with these diseases, and reveal the relationship between disease and poverty that defines the lives of people all around the world." Understanding that an artwork can only just touch at this complex aspiration, Ms. Beaumont nonetheless hopes that the images contained in the shadow boxes give cause for the hope represented by biomedical research; she says that there are angels dancing in hope of cures.