Client: Burning Man
Location: Black Rock City, NV, United States
Completion date: 2013
Project Team
Artist
Kirsten Berg
Kirsten Berg
Industry Resource
Fabricated Industries
Fabricated Industries
Overview
(In)Visible: a visible metaphor for the invisible shimmer of spirit and flash of creative insight. (In)Visible rises as a 23' tower of spectral mirror and steel: its surfaces are highly iridescent, reflective, transparent acrylic panels. Its five cubes are stacked, point-to-point, in incrementally smaller iterations that follow the proportions of the Golden Mean: the base cube is 9.5’, the smaller cubes measure 5.25’, 3.25’, 2’ and 1.25’.
Goals
It was important to work with a structural engineer for the first time to design on a structural frame and footings that would allow a 24' high structure to withstand occasional 60-80 mph winds in the Black Rock Desert yet expressing a light, elegant visual presence.
Process
Over a 9-month period, from inspiration to realization, I worked on this framework approach to create a base that had a minimal visual impact,and could support existing sizes of plexiglass. I first created a small wire-frame model. 5 months into process, I consulted an engineer for the first time as an artist to collaborate on a frame that would allow a 24' high structure to withstand occasional 60-80 mph winds in the Black Rock Desert. A metal shop fabricated and powder-coated the frame, while i work with crew to saw and filed each unique acrylic face by hand, shaping each to fit into the frame panels. Onsite, 10 of us worked in high winds and dust storms on ladders and a VR lift to install (In)Visible ourselves.
Additional Information
(In)visible was inspired by iridescence: also known as “constructive interference", iridescent color forms when two similar light wavelengths combine reflections, generating vivid, flashing color that doesn’t exist anywhere as pigment in the surface of an object, but hovers above it. So, it’s analogous to the spark of our own spirit; we need our own finite physical form as the platform for perception, yet what we perceive eludes our grasp and resists containment. (In)Visible's faceted cubes refer to the faceted spine, the first rigid structure of our embodied self and thus, our conscious awareness.