The absence of glass is highlighted not only visually through blackness over anything glass, but also with the interactive and multimedia installations, creating an immersive environment where visitors explore the world without glass from different perspectives. On each caption of the exhibits, a social media post from an imaginary visitor describe their experiences in the world without glass, adding a more intimate layer to the overall narrative. The unsettling feelings and scenarios derived from the absence of glass are visualised with the abrupt blackness in the clean bright space. ‘UN-GLASS’ utilises hands-on installations as well as hand-made exhibits to juxtapose the utterly conceptual thought experiment with physical interactions and materials.

‘UN-GLASS’ is curated by Tilman Thürmer, vice president of Shanghai Museum of Glass and founder of COO. He intends to reveal the omnipresence of glass, often taken for granted in daily life, with a rather radical approach — remove anything glass. Building on the idea “What can highlight the existence and importance of glass more than its absence?” Tilman Thürmer started this thought experiment with the COO team and realised that the impact of glass on people extends far more than its materiality. Glass altered how human perceive oneself and others, as well as how people connect and experience. Through this subversive world without glass, the international team wants to invite visitors to alter their perspective and rethink about what glass means to them and to humans.

As an institute dedicated to unfold the limitless possibilities of glass, Shanghai Museum of Glass presents a subversive outlook of an obscure world without glass. ‘UN-GLASS’ rips anything glass off from the fabric of reality and replace with patches of impenetrable pitch black, leaving everyone surrounded by uncannily unfamiliar scenarios in daily life.

‘UN‑GLASS’, the 4th conceptual exhibition from ‘KEEP IT GLASSY’ exhibition series, investigates various everyday scenarios where we take glass for granted and highlighting the omnipresence of glass through its absence.