Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass

Related Tactics with Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez, Einar & Jamex de la Torre, Cheryl Derricotte, Pearl Dick, Raya Friday, Vanessa German, Emily Leach, Helen Lee, Corey Pemberton, Ché Rhodes, Joyce Scott, and Kim Thomas
digital prints, hand-blown glass, drawing media on paper, neon, polycotton blend hoodie with sweat, plywood, plaster and plaster bandages, graphite, carbon, styrofoam, burnt shirt, test tubes, rubber stoppers, and collectively gathered sweat
2022

Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass is a research-based exhibition organized by Related Tactics (Michele Carlson, Weston Teruya, and Nate Watson) that examines systemic racism, exclusion, and inequity in the field of glass—and the arts more broadly. Through Disclosure, we invited a series of artists to reinterpret data about the demographics of the glass field as the starting point for building a creative imaginary between artists of color. In a structure reminiscent of a game of telephone, the project unfolded in three iterative stages of interpretation: originating data visualizations by Related Tactics; artist instruction responses by Einar & Jamex de la Torre, Cheryl Derricotte, Emily Leach, Corey Pemberton, Ché Rhodes, and Joyce Scott; and glass responses by Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez, Pearl Dick, Raya Friday, Vanessa German, Helen Lee, and Kim Thomas.

The resulting objects, images, and ephemera are the residue from this dialogue between artists of color in which we created meaningful connections, built together, and examined collective our experiences of negotiating systemic racism in the field. While this was a project that we were compelled to initiate because of the pain of inequity, it is primarily a demonstration of the potential of self-organizing and creative research to forge our own spaces, where we can be seen and imagine expansively.

Exhibition history:
Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX (2024)
Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (2023)
Disclosure: The Whiteness of Glass, Center for Craft, Asheville, NC (2022)

Disclosure was supported by a Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship; Crafting the Future grant; in-kind studio resources by the Tyler School of Art & Architecture’s Glass Program; and resources from the Corning Museum of Glass.

images 1-9: installation images at Center for Craft by Related Tactics
images 10-13: installation images at Corning Museum of Glass, courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass
images 14-17: installation images at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft by Katy Anderson