16:9–Reframing Glass with May Maylisa Cat

How can we reframe glass? Can we view it through a different lens? Emcee’d by visiting artist and critic May Maylisa Cat, 16:9—Reframing Glass is a film festival screening a diverse collection of works from UW Glass alumna, exploring themes such as: identity, culture, language, surveillance, and superstition. Centering glass and video as primary mediums, this curation also dives into performance art and materiality, showcasing the interplay between tradition and innovation. This event aims to foster an understanding of glass and see how artists are interpreting this fascinating medium anew.

16:9—Reframing Glass coincides with the Chazen Museum’s Look What Harvey Did exhibition, which is a collection of classic American Studio Glass. The Chazen exhibition foregrounds the indelible 1962 seminal narrative of American Studio Glass movement at UW-Madison, which introduced hot glass as a contemporary art medium. This event takes inspiration not only from Harvey Littleton but also from his predecessor and two-time Guggenheim awardee, Edris Eckhardt. Drawing from Eckhardt’s work, 16:9—Reframing Glass invites viewers to peer through “the looking glass”—a new lens of glass practice via video and performance—from the perspectives of femme protagonists.

SCHEDULE

Thursday, February 29, 2024, 5:00-8:00pm

• 5:00-6:00pm  |   Hot Glass & Sweet Treats Reception
  • Live Flameworking Demonstrations on the Wisconsin FireWagon by Chemistry Department Scientific Glassblowers Tracy Drier and Lauren Aria
  • Sugarblowing Demonstration by Food Science PhD Candidate and Sugarblower Damielle Hieber
  • Treats from the UW Candy School (Confectionary Technology)
  • Ask-a-Sugar-Scientist with Dr. Richard Hartel, Professor of Food Science
• 6:00-8:00pm  |  16:9—Reframing Glass with May Maylisa Cat Glass Film Festival featuring work by: Lauren Aria, Wai Tung Jocelyn Chan, Jessalyn Mailoa, Mary Thao, Sam Roberts, Ruth Sullivan, Chelsea Thompto, and Sarah Uhen
• 5:00-8:00pm  |  Exhibition Viewing
  Look What Harvey Did: Harvey K. Littleton’s Legacy in the Simona and Jerome Chazen Collection of Studio Glass exhibition open for viewing

ABOUT THE GUEST EMCEE

May Maylisa Cat is a multidisciplinary artist and critic whose work spans new media, performance art, sculpture, and installation. Her projects have received support from the Franklin Furnace Fund; Oregon Arts Commission; Open Signal New Media Fellowship; and Regional Arts and Culture Council of Portland, OR. In June 2022, Cat earned the Lilla Jewel Award, named in honor of the artist, radical feminist and suffragist, Lilla Jewel, for advancing a social change message through her work. She is a recipient of the 2022 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship.

Cat has attended residencies at Chautauqua Visual Arts, Santa Fe Art Institute, Fountainhead Arts, Pilchuck Glass School, Wassaic Project, Caldera Arts, and many others. She has spoken as a guest lecturer for Carnegie Mellon University School of Fine Art in Pittsburgh, PA; Yale School of Art in New Haven, CT; and Cooper Union in New York, NY.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Glass Madison Public Program is supported by: the Chazen Museum of Art, PLACE, the Evjue Foundation, the UW-Madison Glass Lab in the Department of Art, the Department of Chemistry, and the Department of Food Science Candy School.