Waterways

Karl Hale | Baltic Birch and glass marbles: 60″ x 36″ x 6″

Commissioned by the City of Rexburg, Idaho at the 50th Anniversary of the Teton Dam Flood

Water is patient. It finds every crack, fills every vessel, carves canyons over centuries, and in a single afternoon can erase everything in its path. Waterways is a kinetic rolling ball sculpture that invites participants to experience water not just as a subject, but as a force to be guided, managed, and respected.

Commissioned by the City of Rexburg, Idaho to mark the 50th anniversary of the catastrophic 1976 Teton Dam flood, Waterways uses the motion of glass marbles through hand-crafted wooden channels to tell the story of water’s relationship with the land and the people who depend on it.

The Water Cycle: Marbles cascade downward through a web of branching paths, gathering speed and finding their way through the landscape of the sculpture — until they reach the base, where they quietly “evaporate” and are returned to the top to begin the journey again. The cycle is endless, as water always is.

Water Management: Near the top center of the sculpture, a four-way switch diverts the flow down different channels. This switch doesn’t manage itself — the participant must actively tend to it, ensuring each waterway receives its share. A second gate near the lower right demands the same attention. Together, these elements make the sculpture’s central argument felt in the hands: water must be managed, or it will not go where it’s needed.

Overflow: Two additional channels stand ready to catch the excess when the four main paths run full. They are lively, even entertaining — but they tell a cautionary tale. These overflow paths end partway through the cycle, the water never completing its journey. A reminder that not all water that flows does useful work.

The Four Paths

Plants & Crops — Marbles trace the invisible work of rain and irrigation on the land, a nod to the agricultural communities that have always depended on steady water for their survival.

The Dam — Water backs up. Pressure builds. And then it gives way, flooding downward in a rush that honors — and gently echoes — the defining moment in Rexburg’s history.

Irrigation — Channels direct the flow deliberately, dispersing water where it is needed. A portrait of the ingenuity that turned the high desert of eastern Idaho into farmland.

The Buckets — One fills easily. The second takes twice as long. The third, twice the second. The fourth, twice the third. Drop by drop, the exponential truth of accumulation becomes visible: small things, given time, become overwhelming things. Every flood begins with a single drop.

Waterways is both a memorial and an invitation. It honors those whose lives were shaped by the Teton Dam disaster while celebrating the broader human relationship with water — our efforts to channel it, our failures to contain it, and our enduring need to live alongside it.

Year Completed: 2026

Medium: Baltic Birch and glass marbles

Dimensions: 60″ x 36″ x 6″

Commissioning Agency: City of Rexburg, Idaho

Location: Rexburg, Idaho