Kayatibu (The Void)
Cast glass, LEDs — 60" diameter
Kayatibu takes its name from a sacred prayer of the Huni Kuin people—an invocation of healing, protection, and connection to the natural and spiritual worlds. Unfolding like a celestial mandala suspended in radiant motion, the work features cast-glass elements that ripple outward in rhythmic, wave-like forms. Each piece catches and bends light into fluid contours, illuminated by 720 LEDs driven by custom software that guides a continually shifting spectrum of color.
The sculpture moves with a slow, meditative cadence. Cool whites transition into gold, violets soften into rose, and fiery yellows, oranges, and reds ignite the glass petals until they appear almost molten. The entire form seems to breathe—its luminous aura evolving in a calm, contemplative flow.
Inspired by organic patterns, energetic currents, and the quiet focus of ritual, Kayatibu transforms light and glass into an atmosphere of presence. Created in ceremony, it is part sculpture, part invocation—an invitation to pause, settle, and enter a state of stillness, reflection, and inner listening.
“Created in a ceremony of repetition, referencing fields of energy and the interconnectedness of all things as described in ancient philosophies (and by what contemporary science calls the quantum field), Kahl's work seeks to humanize what might otherwise be a cold and unfeeling area of thought. In a highly conceptual realm of ideas that could easily be defined by sterility, light brings life.”
- John Drury, Glass Quarterly Spring 2025. (Read the entire review here.)
Nocon Shawan
Nocon Shawan takes its name from a sacred ancestral song of the Shipibo people of the Peruvian Amazon, a chant that calls upon lineage, memory, and the guiding presence of those who came before. Measuring 60 inches in diameter and composed of eighteen cast-glass elements illuminated by LEDs, the sculpture evokes the quiet radiance of a lunar body.
If Kayatibu is the sun—fiery, vibrant, and expansive—Nocon Shawan is its counterpart: the moon. Its cool, silvery glow and rippling glass forms create an atmosphere of stillness and reflection, as if capturing moonlight refracted through water. The LEDs bathe the glass in a white light halo that evoke phases of the moon, revealing subtle textures and contours in the glass.
A contemplative companion to its solar twin, Nocon Shawan invites viewers into a softer, more inward light—one connected to intuition, ancestral presence, and the quiet pull of the night sky.
Star Meditation Lamp
15" × 15" × 7" — Centrifugally cast glass, LEDs, Arduino, Wood
The Star Meditation Lamp is a centrifugally cast glass sculpture formed in a phyllotaxic pattern that radiates outward like a crystalline bloom. At its center rests a chakana—a stepped Andean cross—embedded within the glass as a symbolic axis of balance and connection. Illuminated from below by 305 finely tuned LEDs, the piece glows with a mesmerizing aurora-like display, its colors shifting in slow, meditative gradients reminiscent of the night sky in motion.
As light refracts through the faceted geometry, the lamp becomes a living object—part sculpture, part ritual instrument. Its gentle, evolving palette invites viewers into a state of contemplation, encouraging them to breathe, pause, and settle into the quiet spaces between color and form. Designed as both an artwork and an experience, the Star Meditation Lamp transforms glass and light into a portal of calm, presence, and wonder.
