Life Evolving

Life Evolving, a 40-foot metal sculpture of a ribonucleic acid (RNA) nucleotide molecule is on display near the Meridian Street ramp to I-70, just south of the Eli Lilly and Company campus. Life Evolving was the final public art installation in A Greener Welcome – the 2010 Lilly Global Day of Service project in partnership with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT).

“Indianapolis continues to strengthen its reputation as a hub for the life sciences,” Rob Smith, president of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, said. “Accordingly, we wanted one of the public art pieces to reinforce the idea that our community and state are doing cutting edge work in the life sciences, and that we have many dedicated people here who are playing a vital role in expanding the boundaries of scientific knowledge.”

Life Evolving is the creation of Chilean-American artist and scientist Biagio Azzarelli, who lives in Indianapolis. Hollow metal spheres attached to two rings represent the base of the molecule, and are supported by beams originating in a large sphere represent a cell. Placement of the beams corresponds to the axial tilt of earth, which determines the seasons and therefore, influences biological development and adaptation.

Scientists hypothesize that the single-strand RNA was the biological building block of Earth’s primitive life forms, replicating themselves into increasingly complex forms millions of years before the appearance of the double helixes of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Azzarelli, a professor emeritus in Pathology, Neuropathology and Neurosurgery at Indiana University; and graduate from the Indianapolis Art Center; said, “I am thrilled with the installation of Life Evolving. Its prominent location along I-70 will welcome people to downtown and, I hope, stimulate public conversation and scientific curiosity.”

Life Evolving was funded as part of A Greener Welcome. KIB owns and will maintain the sculpture. INDOT provided the land for all A Greener Welcome projects, including Life Evolving.

“We are excited to see the sculpture Life Evolving come to our neighborhood,” says John Bragg, president of the Stadium Village Business Association. “It will help to enhance the area and it will partner nicely with the beautification efforts Stadium Village has made over the past few years, as well as the work that Lilly has done with A Greener Welcome.”

For more information about this project, visit http://www.kibi.org/life_evolving.

Quoted from: https://investor.lilly.com/releasedetail2.cfm?releaseid=658878