Grounds > Temple of Gravity
This installation was created for the Burning Man event, held annually in the Nevada Desert. It consists of five 7+ ton granite slabs suspended from a structure resting on five 5+ ton slabs. A fire pit is found at its center. "Being anywhere near it, let alone underneath one of the slabs, really did push a sense of gravity into one's mind!" was the comment by an attendee at Burning Man when it was unveiled.
At We Care Spa™ the temple of gravity plays an important role in ceremony and ritual (a central part of the SPIRIT part of MIND BODY SPIRIT). Weekly transformational fire ceremonies are held under the open Temple of Gravity (wind permitting), and the opening ceremony rituals on Sundays and Fridays can be found there. You'll even see an occasional grouping of guests who want to enjoy the night sky in the desert sitting under its lofty open dome.
But one of the most magical and detoxifying experiences under the "temple" is one that can be experienced alone; greeting the rising sun in the East as you meditatively welcome the new day and all it holds on your journey of holistic health!
Following are some facts shared by the architectural group that conceived of and created the Temple of Gravity:
The Temple of Gravity is an open architectural space defined by steel and stone. The steel structure supports five suspended slabs of roughhewn granite. The overall weight of this structure exceeds 70 tons. This project was presented to me by Zachary Coffin, a sculptor and well-known artist in the Burning Man community.The first model of the "Temple of Gravity" was created in virtual 3D space. Created at a 1/12th scale and all the parts for this model were laser-cut and welded together. One of the models is still resides in the Burning Man offices in San Francisco and the other is in Zack Coffin’s gallery in Atlanta.Engineering the sculpture had taken place in the virtual world of CAD (a 3-dimensional design program) and the only complete assembly occurred when the components were delivered to the Burning Man site in the desert. What a feat, from virtual design to what you now see at We Care Spa in the California desert.