Susie Silbert discusses what intrigued her about glass. Oral history interview with Susie Silbert by Catherine Whalen, February 25, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 02:02.

Susie Silbert: Suzie Peck and Karen Donnellan made this incredible piece Blow Harder that’s actua—in the exhibition it’s represented by two posters, a back and a front. One is gray with a big pink tool on it that’s typically called ‘jacks,’ but in this case it’s displayed in a way upside down from its normal—the normal way you see that, and it’s called ‘jills’ instead. On the other poster is pink, pink to white, with alternative lexicons for the hotshop suggesting in three, kind of, different sections, alternative language for the sexualized and gendered language commonly in use for—use in the hotshop. So, for instance, instead of ‘jacks,’ they suggest ‘jills,’ instead of ‘glory hole,’ they suggest ‘G spot’ in the feminist version [laughs]. I think the three sections are neutral language, feminist language, highbrow language, and then there’s a fourth that’s open for other—for you to put your own things in. And this work is the result of an etymological analysis they undertook to understand where these terms came from. And what they found was, by and large, the words had been in use in English language hotshops for longer than many of the connotations. But they are thinking, still, about the way that the language that we use creates or doesn’t create an inclusive environment and so their suggestions, which I love that they’re open ended, are an attempt to, I think, use humor to create an opportunity to rethink the hotshop and the kind of work that it enables. So, for instance, I don’t think there are really expecting anybody to start calling their blow partner ‘adula.’ But I think in using that kind of language they are showing equal and opposite. They’re envisioning a new life for the hotshop.