Yiyi Wei grew up with memories of watching sugar blowers at Beijing's Lunar New Year temple fairs. She moved to the United States almost a decade ago and has not seen a sugar blower since. Sugar blowing is a traditional Chinese craft. Molten sugar's materiality is very similar to molten glass. Wei never acquired the skill of traditional sugar blowing; instead, she learnt ways to blow glass. In the performance Project: blowing sugar [glass] 吹【糖】玻璃， Wei creates an environment where people gather, watch demonstrations, drink from freshly blown sugar vessels, and share memories about sugar and glass. Over time, the smell of cooked sugar slowly diffuses in the gallery space, creating an invisible veil of cane sugar sweetness between everyone and everything.
Because this piece is influenced by Chinese street sugar blowing performance and the responses/interactions from passerby, the documentation of this piece is done through the devices of the viewers and participants.
Street performance at Flux Factory, LIC, NY
2020
