At the Fulcrum Gallery in Tacoma, though, that’s what’s now on show. Galen McCarty Turner has put together a roomful of sculpture made from charged rare gases in glass tubes. Glowing, flickering and shimmering in an array of electric colors, the gas sculptures are intriguing as both art and chemistry.

First, some chemistry basics, for those (like this reviewer) who need them. Rare gases, properly known as noble gases, occupy group 18 of the periodic table of the elements. Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon are stable (meaning they rarely react with other elements) and usually occur as odorless, colorless gases. When you confine them in a glass tube and run high-voltage electric current through them, however, some light up in color – as anyone who has ever seen a neon sign will know.

What you probably haven’t seen, though, is what happens when you substitute argon for neon. Or add powdered phosphorus. Or drops of mercury. Or – and this is the fun bit – when a human touches the tube as an electrical ground. Suddenly, you’ve got a rainbow of colors jostling with electricity, responsive to touch and open to a whole lot of sculptural possibilities.

And that’s what you’ll see at Fulcrum. McCarty Turner, who works at Tacoma Screw, isn’t an established artist by any means – this is his largest show to date (though he does have an art car, the one with the bomb on top). But ever since he took the Neon 101 course at The Evergreen State College (which he now helps teach), he’s been fascinated by the properties of noble gases. His show at Fulcrum mixes this knowledge with some basic glassblowing.

In the gallery’s front space, manufactured glass tubing is fused into 15 wall pieces each around 3 feet high and charged by a single-ended electrode. Mounted on wooden Gothic arches, the twisty, curvy glass tendrils resemble coral in a weird-science, Addams Family kind of way, added to with textured patterns of screws, fasteners, old rulers and so on. It has a folk-art appeal, plus the endless fascination of what happens when you touch the tubes that need electric grounding – colors change, tubes start flickering.

In the back space, though, is an installation that shows this medium’s enormous possibilities. Along one wall are 30 glass tubes, some 8 feet long, set vertically in a random pattern. The hand-blown tubes bubble in and out, and this, apparently, is what creates the dynamic movement inside: The current going through the gases tries to find the shortest route, but when it does – in the constricted point between bubbles – it heats up, creating resistance and shifting the current.

The result of all this electro-chemistry? Shimmering radiant colors alive in their tubes, a bit like light artist Dan Flavin on caffeine, or an X-ray box filled with candy-colored spines. Each gas has its own color, but changes when another element is added. Argon is lavender, but add drops of mercury and it jolts a bright blue. Neon is red but becomes an electric sky-blue when mercury is added. Pure xenon is a pale green, but put your hand near it and it lights up. Powdered phosphorus, which McCarty Turner extracts from old neon tubing, glows a cloudy, pinkish-blue. Eventually, says McCarty Turner, the electric pulsing will settle down, but the color won’t dim.

This Thursday McCarty Turner will give a gallery talk and slide show, as well as display new pieces involving textured, colored tubes.

Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8658

What: Galen McCarty Turner: “Impractical Luminescence”

When: 6-9 p.m. Thursdays, noon-9 p.m. Sundays and by appointment through May 11

Where: Fulcrum Gallery, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma

Related Event: Artist slide show and lecture, 7 p.m. Thursday

Admission: Free

Information: 253-250-0520, www.fulcrum.oliverdoriss.com

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