Polishing the Glass Ceiling

Preston Bradley Hall, 3rd Floor South
Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago IL
2021


Polishing the Glass Ceiling is a three hour performance set in the Chicago Cultural Center. Working on hands and knees, I silently polished floor and wall mosaics with my grandmother’s handkerchief. Moving into the vaulted Preston Bradly Hall I stood up and burnished the walls, stretching my arms toward the Tiffany ceiling high above. At the culmination of these domestic actions, I read aloud the names of thirty female authors to insert them verbally into this former Chicago Public Library, alongside the inscribed names of thirty canonical male authors. A ritualized performance of symbolic gestures to honor and make visible the unacknowledged labor of female artists in this public space.

Video and photos by Leila Ghasempor