Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Glass
First Advisor
Jocelyne Prince
Second Advisor
Rachel Berwick
Third Advisor
Matthew Day Perez
Abstract
What is molten glass when it is not asked to become a functional object?
What can glass become when it is breathing and moving on its own will?
What does it feel like to be alive at 1650°F?
Glass, in its molten state, exists in continuous flux, neither stable nor with a fixed boundary. It resists direct apprehension. In this thesis, I approach glass as a material whose vitality emerges through motion, reaction, and change. Glass thinks, remembers, and carries time within its movement. Actions taken in the molten state—interruptions, reactivations, and pauses—are not preserved as gestures, but translated into form as traces of the material itself.
With wonder as a guiding philosophy and alchemy as a working method, my practice approaches form making as a temporary condition that opens onto further inquiry. Display becomes an extension of this process: a way of structuring how these works are encountered, how much information is revealed, and how viewers are invited to look. Image-making similarly operates not as documentation alone, but as a secondary site of translation—extending perception beyond the limits of the naked eye and allowing this information to surface through mediated vision.
Ultimately, this thesis proposes glass as a medium that invites us to dwell within process rather than mastery. By working with instability rather than against it, the work asks viewers to encounter material not as an inert substance, but as an active field of becoming—one that calls for attentiveness, unlearning, and a willingness to move toward the unknown.
Recommended Citation
Hu, Lingyi, "In the Becoming" (2026). Masters Theses. 1663.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1663
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.