Polishing the Glass Ceiling

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

Video and photos by Leila Ghasempor

Polishing the Glass Ceiling is a durational performance set in the Chicago Cultural Center. For three hours I silently cleaned walls and floors with my grandmother's handkerchief, transforming domestic labor into a meditation on hidden histories.

Crouching on my hands and knees, I meticulously polished glass and mosaic tiles on the staircase and landing outside of Preston Bradley Hall. Working my way inside the main room, under the iconic Tiffany Dome, I buffed wall tiles while balancing on my toes. My movements remained deliberately impractical—always stretching toward the unreachable glass ceiling—to acknowledge the invisible barriers faced by women seeking positions of authority.

 Standing in the center of this former library I read aloud the names of thirty women writers, inserting their presence into a room with thirty male names inscribed on the walls. A vocal and symbolic counterbalance to the absence of women's contributions in this public space.

 Before leaving the building I taped a new label to the existing wall panel. With labor statistics and updated resources relating to Clara Driscoll and the Women's Glass Cutting Department in Tiffany's New York studio, this final act draws attention to the mostly anonymous women laborers who crafted the building's glassworks.