Fluent Steps

2009 – ongoing

Installation Overview

Fluent Steps celebrates the many moods of water through three small islands of glass: Cascades, Echo, and Wisps. It spans the entire length of the 210-foot-long Main Plaza reflecting pool and rises from water level to 15-feet in height. The piece consists of 754 individually hand-sculpted pieces of glass mostly created in the Museum’s Hot Shop during Blank’s 45-day Visiting Artist Residency in 2008.

"MY INTENT WITH FLUENT STEPS IS TO AWAKEN THE VIEWER’S EYE TO KEENLY OBSERVE, INTERACT WITH, AND RESPOND TO THE EMOTIVE NATURE OF WATER. WATER CAN BE PLACID, SUBLIME, AND — IN AN INSTANT — UNCOMPROMISINGLY RAW AND POWERFUL. IT’S THE VEHICLE FOR CAPTURING LIGHT, MOTION, FLUIDITY, AND TRANSPARENCY. IT’S THE VEHICLE FOR LIFE." — MARTIN BLANK

The sculpture includes three individual islands of glass that interact with one another to portray Blank’s interpretation of water in its various forms. Cascades rises above the viewer to a height of 15-feet above the water like a surging waterfall. Echo languidly flows across the surface of the pool, creating an intimate dance of texture and reflective light. Wisps, a field of hundreds of small glass forms, breaches the surface like rising mist.

The project required the invention of new tools to handle the massive amounts of glass and a team of 41 artists, architects, and engineers to create and install the work. For both Blank and the Museum, it was a marathon that demanded vast amounts of imagination, creativity, persistence, and resourcefulness. The result is a magnificent sculpture that captures the fluidity, light, motion, and transparency of water in clear glass. Ultimately, it is a work of art that is as imaginative and exuberant as Martin Blank himself.

This monumental installation opened April 18, 2009, and is part of the Museum’s Permanent Collection of twentieth- and twenty-first century glass art.