In the first episode of the glassblowing showdown, the Tulane University-trained, New York City-based artist - a 30-year veteran of the craft - introduces herself as an acquired taste. “I think I’m a very polarizing personality,” she says to camera.
TCHIA LITMAN PHD TV
Whether you consider her the villain or the heroine of “Blown Away,” Czeresko, who days ago turned 58, has emerged as the unlikeliest reality TV star since Wendy Pepper, the Middleburg, Va., mom who stirred up controversy in the debut season of “Project Runway.” With thick-rimmed specs, blunt bangs and a flair for provocative, political work, Czeresko cuts a striking figure in the 10-part competition - easily binge-able at 23 minutes an episode - and it’s not only because her projects, such as sprouted potatoes and larger-than-life breakfasts, are likely to elicit strong responses of their own. “To me, it’s almost a political act,” she says in the series, “to occupy the hot shop as a fierce female glassblower.” As an accomplished, unapologetic and, yes, demanding woman artist, Czeresko must confront sexist reality TV tropes in addition to art world misogyny. Czeresko, who sits on the board of the New York nonprofit UrbanGlass, reports that people are already signing up for classes because of “Blown Away” - to the point that they need more classes for beginners. “This is the most exposure that glassblowing has probably ever gotten,” she says. The Times caught up with Czeresko - fresh off fracturing her ankle in a surfing accident - by telephone to discuss the backlash she saw coming the heartfelt notes she didn’t and a “frightening,” “motivating” experience at a glass factory in Murano, Italy. What made you to want ‘polarizing’ to be the first way you described yourself on camera?Īfterward, I was like, “Why did I do that? That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” I just know my personality. I usually have that kind of thing happen to me, and I knew I wouldn’t be hiding myself.
I knew that I’d try to be bringing my point of view from my history with glass to the table, having a global platform for it. Did you feel that you had that effect on your fellow contestants, or is that based on the reactions that you’ve seen since the show started airing? I don’t know what prompted me to say it - but it did pan out. The other contestants, we didn’t have that type of relationship, except for - sometimes we would get heated in the moment, like when I was making the foot, when Janusz responded to my - raised voice, shall we say. What you don’t see on camera is what was really happening. My assistant was across the studio, and she couldn’t hear me. But I expected there to be a backlash to my claiming my space as a woman in the hot shop and my feminist approach to glass, and I knew that the moment you go up against the straight, white, cis culture, you’re going to get backlash for it, because that’s the status quo. Had you watched much reality TV before being on ‘Blown Away’? Were you aware of some of the tropes around reality TV ‘villains,’ especially women? So I expected there’d be lovers and haters, honestly. A lot of it I can’t even watch, it’s so bad. I tried to watch “Big Brother” yesterday, and I was like, “Ugh. I’ve watched “Project Runway.” “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” There’s, like, women crying all the time on “Project Runway” - no, " The Next Great Artist,” that was the one where there’s a lot of crying. There are people on reality TV who, as a competitive strategy, try to position themselves as the ‘villain.’ The cliched way of saying it is, ‘I’m not here to make friends.’ But it sounds like your assessment was based on your experience in the art world, and the wider world. My whole history of blowing glass, it’s always been lovers and haters in the studio. I don’t want to oversimplify the reasons, because stuff happens - “Oh, we want the same blow pipe.” There’s the over-generalizations, and then there’s the personal interactions and how they’re dealt with, that cause this to happen.
And then there’s life in general - walking to the studio and getting harassed. How would you characterize those responses? When we were making arrangement to speak, you mentioned that you’d had a lot of people reaching out to you.
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