WASHINGTON — A new mural is going up in Northeast D.C. It's part of a series of murals by internationally recognized artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya celebrating women in science.
The new piece, is called "We Contain Multitudes," depicts women as quarks, Phingbodhipakkiya says. Quarks are subatomic particles that make up protons.
"What's happening here is a proton collision," Phingbodhipakkiya. She says her art was inspired by the work of Dr. Ayana Arce at Duke University.
Dr. Arce studies protons and quarks by colliding them together. When a collision is strong enough, its quark pairs can split apart, sending them hurtling off away from the crash. The paired quarks move farther apart, and their connection becomes strained, but then nature comes to the rescue.
"Nature does something really cool, where it's kind of like out of thin air a quark comes into being," Phingbodhipakkiya explained. "That reasearch... I find so interesting, because I find that when I feel adrift or alone, it's often the women who are reaching their arms out to receive us, to hold us, and to make sure that we have a community to connect with."
The work is part of a series of murals and public art across the country by the FINDINGS Project. The D.C. mural is the second in the series, that includes art in Brooklyn, New York, Denver, Colorado, Oakland, California, and Seattle, Washington.
"I hope that when people come by, they think about how complex and messy our world is, but also how women are the glue that hold our world together," Phingbodhipakkiya said.
The mural will be completed with the help of youth partners in the D.C. area. It's located along the Metropolitan Branch Trail in Eckington, D.C.