‘The Material Is Alive’: Watch Artist Jes Fan Heat and Sculpt Glass to Build His Ethereal Sculptures

The Hong Kong-born, US-based
artist Jes Fan is familiar with the idea of being “in flux,” which
he describes as a “stage of perpetual confusion, not completely at
place with one category.” 

He has both a personal and
professional understanding of the subject. Working to sculpt glass,
as he does, is a study in patience and constant
change. “You have to
move so quick because the material is alive,” he says in an
exclusive interview with Art21 as part of the “New York Close Up” series. “It was liquid, now it’s
almost plastic, and then it’ll become more like what we think of
what glass is.” 

In the video, viewers can watch
as Fan blows, rolls, and heats the material, sculpting it into
intricate forms that recall bodily organs. 

Fan has also experienced flux in
his personal life: he describes the challenges of growing up queer,
moving to a new country, and embracing his identity as a trans man.
His work often confronts the categories into which materials, and
even identities, are organized, leaving out so many who feel
“other.” 

Going through the process of
transitioning, injecting masculine hormones into his own body, led
Fan to begin incorporating bodily materials with his
work. 

“Using testosterone to
masculinize my body is in some way similar to using a chisel to
carve out a surface,” he tells Art21. “In a way, you’re sculpting your
body. And in a way, I’m also like that glass, in this liquid
transformation, or perpetually in flux.”

Right now, Fan’s work is on view as part of the “Socrates Annual 2019” at Socrates Sculpture
Park in Long Island City, alongside 14 other artists working in a
range of materials.

Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of
Art21’s New York Close
Up series, below. See Fan’s work in the
“Socrates Annual 2019” at Socrates Sculpture
Park, through March 8, 2020. 

This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration
between artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking
artists. A new season of the nonprofit Art21’s
flagship Art in the Twenty-First
Century television series is available now on PBS. Catch
all episodes of New York Close
Up and Extended Play and
learn about the organization’s education programs
at Art21.org.

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Sculpt Glass to Build His Ethereal Sculptures appeared first on
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