Theia: a phenomenon of light is an artist installation using thousands of k9 crystals that surround the community garden at Martha’s Community Farm in Audubon, PA. The crystals when sunlight hits them divides the sun’s rays to help the flowers grow and creates rainbows everywhere. This is an artist installation in nature by Maria Maneos and its influence is from Greek Mythology.
Θεια
Medium: k9 crystal prisms, Serabond #92 polyester thread, and colored glass.
Theia(Θεια) is a phenomenon of light composed of over one thousand k9 crystals strung on the metal fencing that surrounds the community garden at Martha’s Community Farm in Audobon, PA.
The farm was formerly part of Saint Gabriel’s Hall. Saint Gabriel’s Hall {SGH} was a long-term, multi-service residential treatment facility for adjudicated (delinquent and/or dependent) male youth from the Philadelphia area, which is now closed. Martha’s Community Farm, with the art installation titled, Theia, is located across the street from the St. Gabriel’s building.)
About The Art Work
Theia is a magical experience of light, growth, and reflection composed entirely of k9 crystal prisms and colored glass gems. As sunlight passes through the prisms, it is bent, or refracted, by the angles and plane faces of the prism, and each wavelength of light is refracted by a slightly different amount. As a result, all of the colors in the white light of the sun separate into individual bands of colors producing rainbows all around. Sunlight supplies the complete range of wavelengths and can be broken up by a prism into bands of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. … Red light, when combined with blue light, encourages flowering. Plants look green to us because they reflect, rather than absorb, green light. Violet has the highest frequency and is refracted the most. Red has the lowest frequency and is refracted the least. Because each color is refracted differently, each bends at a different angle, resulting in a fanning out and separation of white light into the colors of the spectrum creating rainbows everywhere around the surrounding area. Rainbows are the result of the refraction and reflection of light. Both refraction and reflection are phenomena that involve a change in a wave’s direction.
Reflection is also used not only through the phenomena of light but in memorial to the past in dedication to the male youth residents who lived at St. Gabe’s and took care of the farmland and its animals. Martha’s Community Farm is newly named and is now a community garden that grows food to help feed people in the community as well as being given to various nonprofits and food pantries in the area.
The title name of THEIA is derived from the Titan goddess of sight (thea) and the shining ether of the bright, blue sky (aithre). Theia bore the Titan Hyperion three shining children–Helios, the Sun, Eos, the Dawn, and Selene, the Moon. “Wide-Shining.”
Greek Name
Θεια
Transliteration
Theia
Latin Spelling
Theia
Translation
Sight, Prophecy
In the frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon(Berlin), the goddess who fights at Helios’ back is conjectured to be Theia. Theia is is a Titan goddess of sight and brilliance. Her brother-consort is Hyperion, a Titan and god of the sun, and together they are the parents of Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn).