Kujenga 17

Kujenga 17 stacks frosted and clear glass blocks into a column that notches in and out along both edges, so the profile reads almost like a line of script turned on its side. Inside the glass, fragments of color are suspended at different depths: flashes of orange, violet, cobalt, sage and small points of red.

Where other works in the series are saturated throughout, this one works through reserve. The pale, milky body of the glass diffuses light rather than transmitting it directly, and the colored inclusions appear to float within it like marks on a sheet of vellum. The sculpture has the quality of a drawing held in three dimensions.

The interlocking steps give the column a sense of rhythm and balance. Each block appears to hook into the next, and the whole structure depends on those small engagements to stand. Kujenga, Swahili for building, fits a form assembled piece by piece, with every joint left visible.

Set on a brushed stainless steel base, the work is quiet at a distance and increasingly intricate up close, rewarding the kind of slow looking usually reserved for painting.