South Lakes High School STEAM Team Unveils New Public Art Project

The South Lakes High School STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) Team has released its latest temporary public art installation, titled Nothing Twice, in the Lake Thoreau spillway on South Lakes Drive.

The piece of art was produced and displayed in conjunction with the Initiative for Public Art — Reston (IPAR), and it was supported by the Lake Thoreau Entertainment Association, the Reston Association and private donations.

The concept behind Nothing Twice is to show the individuality of each Reston community member while also displaying the unity the community shows as a whole.

With this in mind, the STEAM team — a creative outlet for students hoping to influence their community through public art — designed an iridescent double-helix sculpture. The double-helix is meant to show we all derive from DNA and are not as different as we’re sometimes led to believe. But the iridescence and the different colors displayed on different portions of each helix depending on the angle at which light hits it show we are unique even if we are not that different.

Ultimately, though, if you stand far enough away, even with the iridescence the statue will begin to look as though it is all one color, and this is meant to represent viewing the Reston community and its many unique residents from afar, and how from that perspective they are able to join together with one united identity.

The title Nothing Twice comes from a poem with the same title by Wislawa Szymborska. It was especially inspired by one particular line from the poem reading “although we’re different (we concur)/ just as two drops of water are.”

The STEAM Team used galvanized steel, strata glass, clear vinyl, iridescent film, and galvanized wire rope to construct the statue. The helix design was recommended by sculptor Mary Ann Mears after the team presented designs to the IPAR in January.

This year’s STEAM public art project follows last year’s “Pyramid of Light.”

Image credit: Larry Butler (via the Reston Association)