Axis Mundi

Axis Mundi is a project Kathy and I started in January, and installed at Burning Man, this year, 2016.  Actually, the project started in an unusual way.  This year Kathy had managed to work with the Artery so that we were sure we could purchase tickets.  We started brainstorming for ideas, and then I was told in a dream that I would cast five full size women in glass.  That’s a lot of work, so in my dream I asked whether I could cast just one, and the answer was — No, you will cast five.

So we began.  The Axis Mundi is the axis on which the world turns, the connection between Heaven and Earth.  The five women are arranged in a pentagon, facing inward with their arms intertwined.  The axis itself is the void, the place of birth; it is void in which their is nothing, no judgment, only existence; it is the place of witnessing what we are, and it is a place of divine love.

Surrounding the women are the five Platonic Solids, artifacts that record our space-time geometry.  And surrounding that, the immortal circle is enclosed in the dance of life.

So we have these parts in concentric circles: the origin is the axis itself, from which all arises; the pentagon of the five glass women embrace and witness the void; this defines the sacred geometry; and it is enclosed in the dance of life.  The five women form a pentagon, which forms a single face of the dodecahedron, which has 12 faces in total, the dance of life has 17 faces.

The women are cast in “negative relief,” meaning that they are inset into the back side of a block of glass.  The glass itself has a flat surface, and one peers through it to see the form embedded on the reverse.  Kathy painted the rest, and her work is simply wonderful.  The Platonic solids are painted in oil on canvas, and the 17 women on the exterior cover some 200 square yards of canvas. Kathy did incredible research, finding colors and canvas that could withstand the bright, hot, dusty environment on the playa.  Our installation was visible from every corner of the playa.

Practically speaking, this was a long drawn out labor of love.  When I had the dream/vision in January, I felt we already didn’t have enough time — we had just 7 months to prepare and get everything together.  For me, this included the time to find models, digital sculpting to form the reliefs, mold making, and casting. Each of the glass blocks would take 3 days to cast, so with 35 blocks for the entire sculpture, this would take 4 months of casting time.  So I felt the pressure from the beginning!

But it turned into such a labor of love.  I was absolutely certain, I wanted to work with real people, actual models.  We would not hide imperfections, these would be real people.  My first step was to find the models, and I decided on a work path: we would take a digital image from a 3D camera, then I used sculpting tools (in this case ZBrush, which turned out to be wonderful) to create reliefs, then a 3D printer to print the reliefs, and the rest is old school: create plaster/silica molds from the printed models, and then cast the glass in a kiln.

So this was a bit of modern technology (digital 3D scan, 3D editor, 3D printer), together with traditional glass casting (plaster/silica molds, KS-4 refractory for the walls, Bullseye glass clear cullet, and a Denver Glass kiln).  That’s a long journey from start to finish.  Let’s look at the steps.

First, we start with the raw 3D scan of the model.  This is Iveta, absolutely gorgeous, you can see the detail in her face, neck (and her collar especially), breasts, hips, knees.  The issues are that her eyes are closed, she has no hair on her head, and she is apparently unaware that we already love her.

There are many things we must “fix” for the sculpture, but we want to really want to keep her form.  ZBrush turned out to be really good at doing this.  We want to sculpt eyes and hair, bend her arms and legs as if they were clay.  This was reasonably easy in ZBrush.  It took a few weeks to learn the tool (evenings only), and then perhaps one week with each model, about 2 million polygons resolution for each of the models.  Here is the final Iveta that I printed.

Repeating with all the models, we got the lineup of all the women: Zoe, Iveta, Hana, Jana, and Libena.

How do we get the form in glass instead of plaster?   The trick is to reverse the mold.  Cover it with petroleum jelly, again, then invert the mold by casting another against it, this time in plaster/silica.  This will give you the positive mold on the right.  We need a 50/50 mix of plaster and silica so the mold won’t explode at high temperature.  More important, we lose definition each time we make a mold, so we have to use some sculpting to recover the detail.

Finally, as it seems, we have to cast the glass.  A lot of people do glass blowing, but casting is an entirely different art.  In blowing, you work directly with the hot glass to shape it with tools, and the quality of the result is determined by how skilled you are, and heavy objects require strength.

Casting is different.  In this case, we make a mold (usually plaster/silica), place it in a kiln (an oven), place chunks of glass over it, and with enough heat (1600F in this case), the glass melts and fills in the mold.  Afterwards, the mold crumbles and we dig it out, and we are left with the glass.

Awesome, I wanted to cast, but the only problem I had was that my existing kiln was dead.  It was a Paragon 24″ ADTSD that I had been using for the last 5 years, and 4 of 9 of the heating elements were busted.  Besides, it was front loading, and I wanted a top loader.

Let’s come back.  I received this image of 5 women in vision, I had been told of this externally.  I work with glass and steel, and I knew exactly how to cast these women, in negative relief.  And so it began, 7 months of work, from 3D models, to 3D prints, to plaster models, to glass blocks.  Next, I welded together the frame for the women.  1 ton of glass, and half a ton of steel.  Incredible.  I focus on the glasswork, but Kathy wrap it in another entirely different level.

This project started with Kathy and I brainstorming ideas, working on the artwork, painting, glass, and steel.  We would be nowhere without our team of supporters, especially Isabella Serrano and Philippus Kühn who have helped us in every way, from construction on the playa to a loving home camp.  Here we are in joy, from left to right, Philipp, Kathy, me, Nobu, Liz, Bella.

And also out home spiritual family, Jeremy, Tammy, me, Kathy, Megan.  Our lives and our family have blossomed and grown with these people.