Originally, when I started at NYU, I was majoring in Film and Television at Tisch after a 3 year fellowship at The Ghetto Film School in the South Bronx, where one of my moms is from. I had fallen in love with movies, and how much research, world-building, and attention to detail it takes to create something worthwhile. After I transferred to The Gallatin School of Individualized Study, I discovered that I could be a world builder through other mediums, and I decided that I wanted to make art that an audience could physically connect with in the real world, and actively engage in. I am currently focused on creating tactile glass and ceramic pieces for viewers to touch and experience beyond just sight.
Glass is a liquid and a solid. It’s fragile and strong. It’s pure and dirty. It’s a barrier and an invitation. It’s a holy material and a cursed one. It’s malleable and unbendable. It combines with metals to create color, and yet it does not react with most chemicals to be used in most chemical experiments. It’s incredibly cheap and pricelessly expensive. Anyone can do it, and no one can do it perfectly. It’s made by a machine, and by man. It is infinitely reusable and must be destroyed as a biohazard. It is seen and unseen. It is a window, and it is a wall. It is a human material, and one made by the earth herself.
I could keep going, but I think you understand the point; there is nothing like this incredible material, and by learning to become a glass artist and crafter, I have become intimately acquainted with these contradictions. These contradictions allow me to see the things I learn through the lens of glass, and I can explore ideas about climate change, memory, and creation through the nuances of glass. It allows me to flow through the cracks of ideas, and bring different pieces of knowledge together, like a stained glass piece.
Alexandra Faye Friedman 