A Two-Way Mirror is an exhibition of contemporary Black artists who have used glass to create work that deconstructs social, cultural, gender, and racial identity concerns that opened recently at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. The artists range in background from African American to British to Puerto Rican.
Each artist uses glass to reflect thoughts and bodies that have historically been fraught with exploitation. Due to its reflectivity and translucence, glass is an apt medium to interrogate identity constructs such as the theory of double consciousness presented by W.E.B. Dubois in his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk.
According to the exhibit’s curator, Jabari Owens-Bailey, “The hope with an exhibition like A Two-Way Mirror is that future artists and generations will see themselves represented no matter their background. Glass can tell stories in ways that are interesting and engaging because of the versatility of the medium. Glass can be translucent, opaque, smooth, grainy, textured, or a mirror reflecting all of who we are as people. We hope to see you at A Two-Way Mirror at the Museum of Glass to help support Black artists who are making artwork that reflects the nuances of their identities outward to the world.”
In this exhibition, the historical representation of Black people is explored through the medium of glass. The perception of self is always warring with that of the outside. Glass art has been predominantly devoid of access for historically marginalized people. This was in large part due to the cost of production, racial oppression, and the class division between artist and artisan. While the exhibition cannot rectify this division, it can explore inequity of history and offer works by artists of African descent that tell their own stories.
As the production of glass has become more accessible, the medium has become more open to different voices. This is an age of pluralism. People of different racial, gender, sexual, and class identities all can now tell their stories through art. Glass is a medium that reflects not only the inner truths of both the viewers and makers, but that of Western society as a whole.
For Additional Information
Museum of Glass
museumofglass.org
BY LYNN CASTLE