FLUIDITY FROZEN

Martin Blank’s Fluent Steps mimic the fluid nature of water and turn it into pieces of glass frozen in time. 

The artwork of Martin Blank celebrates the various moods of water through three small islands of glass: Cascades, Echo, and Wisps. It spans the entire length of the 64-meter-long Main Plaza reflecting pool of the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. Fluent Steps rises from water level to 4,5 meters in height, consisting of 754 individually hand-sculpted pieces of glass mostly created in the museum during Blank’s artistic residency. 

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. This monumental installation is part of the Museum of Glass’s permanent collection of twentieth and twenty-first-century glass art.

Photography: © Martin Blank