Analemma

Medium: Solid blown glass
Dimensions: Twelve sculptures, individually sized, ranging approximately 2"–12" along their longest axis (see full dimension list) · bases 2– 4 ft
Year: 2022

Analemma is a series of twelve glass sculptural lenses that materialize the sun's annual path across the sky. The title refers to the figure-8 pattern the sun traces when photographed from a single location on Earth at the same time each day over a year — a diagram resembling the infinity symbol.

Working with glassblowers, Rostami developed a technique to trap air inside molten glass, forming interior bubbles by precisely timing the cooling period and applying exterior pressure. Each sculpture holds breath — literal air from the glassblowing process — suspended within solid glass, freezing the invisible and ephemeral into tangible matter. The centerpiece is a figure-8 sculpture that emerges from a sphere in stages and gradually morphs back into it, each piece embodying a phase of light as it appears reflected from a concave mirror circling a fixed source.

Installed in sequence, the twelve pieces let viewers walk through the progression and experience how each lens transforms space differently. The work makes visible two invisible cycles — the sun's annual journey and the breath captured within each form — time and air crystallized as light held in glass.

These sculptures hold something inherently transient — breath, light, time — in permanent, unmoving form.

Related terms: Analemma · Space • Landscape • Portal • Reflections • Light Laboratory • Light Drawing • Light Instruments • Melting Reflection

Glass sculptures as optic lenses:

Each sculpture's trapped air pocket acts as a working lens. Looking through one bends and refracts the surrounding space — a word held behind it reads as both near and distant, the horizon splits into overlapping planes, and what's solid starts to look dissolved depending on where you stand. The piece isn't just an object to view; it's an optic lens you look through.

Glass sculpture as instrument of drawing light:

Each lens bends and redirects light outward, tracing new shapes across the surrounding surfaces. The glass doesn't just hold light; set in motion, it draws with it.