Photograph by Han Minu.
The new cultural frontier has no frontiers at all, and Jes Fan is one of the few artists who is already operating there full time. They operate on an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural scale, bringing fluidity and flow to their work while emphasizing the porosity of the body in relation to its environment. Fan conceives craft on terms that are radically different from those of previous generations. Their primary medium is glass but recently began experimenting with plastic. Within these works, estrogen, testosterone, a synthetic compound called Aqua-Resin, pigmented wax, and hair, as well as the
occasional component in blown glass, are all incorporated.
Recently, Fan began to explore sculptural “systems” that reflect the inner workings of the body, as well as buildings (i.e., plumbing) and digital circuitry. Featured in the Objects: USA 2020 catalogue is a relief panel with historic resonance—it resembles work from the 1960s by Svetozar and Ruth Clark Radakovich, for example—yet embodying the emergent aesthetics of a new and still unmapped future.
