How to Clean a Window --- StayHome Edition

Yixuan Pan

HowtoCleanaWindow_StayHomeEdition - Yixuan Pan from Tyler Glass on Vimeo.

Inspired by the history of the glass industry in Finland, I recognize glass’s inherent linguistic properties. It is transparent yet fuzzy, delivers information while setting up segregation. Glass is not a symbol for translation. Glass is translation.

The desire for windows opened up the glass industry in Finland. The Industrial Revolution built factories and glass windows were highly needed. Under Swedish rule, Finland’s large forests meant a great amount of fuel for heating up the glass furnaces. Therefore, it became an ideal place for making glass. When humans immersed themselves in fanatical machinery productions, what did glass mean for them? Light? Nature? Fantasy? Security?

When the industrial revolution welcomes the age of Anthropocene, what can we do under self-quarantine? With unprecedented globalization, we are not only sharing economy, but health. This performative workshop offers comfort from paranoia and invites people to reestablish trust in communities. By connecting our window cleaning routines together, our solitude transforms into solidarity.

Compositing: Steve Winfield Meyer

Made for Glass Art Society 2020 conference. The original conference in Sweden was cancelled due to COVID-19, but it proceeds online.

 
 
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Yixuan Pan, TYL MFA ‘17
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

Website: www.panyixuanpan.com
IG: @panyixuanpan


I was born and raised in the land of fish and rice, Hunan, China. Growing up speaking Mandarin Chinese, then having traveled and moved frequently, I’ve decided to keep being confused about language. My lack of knowledge has become creative fuel that powers my explorations and curiosity. I employ various approaches—dumpling making, poetry composing, swimming pool exercising, lollipop casting, soap bubble blowing, music therapy operating, glass shard foraging and recording, window cleaning, love letter whispering, choral conducting, and rainbow party hosting—to imagine an alternative space for culture, identity and power relationships. I am the author of It -A Skillful Amateur's Records on Glass. Currently, I teach digital art at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and I want to be a cook when I grow up.

Image credit: Marie-Pascale Hardy