Donald Lipski, American
Farm Tool, 1993
Donald Lipski’s Farm Tool features a 1932 Ford truck whose flatbed transports four 200-liter Pyrex boiling flasks filled with yucca plants in a preservation solution. The installation is one of eleven glass sculptures commissioned in the 1990s for a new headquarters building of Corning Incorporated in Corning, New York. The corporate context for this sculpture calls attention to the dialectical relationships between glass technology and its applications. Pyrex glass is one of the most well-known products associated with the 150-year old company. We know it as an ideal oven-to-table baking dish or measuring cup. The large flasks seen here are also made from Pyrex glass and are ideal containers for toxic and hazardous waste. In Lipski’s installation, they feature ephemeral plant material that will break down slowly over time, emphasized by the nostalgic choice of the 1932 Ford. Given the placement of the installation, he also subtly stirs conversation about the endangerment and necessary preservation of the natural world if we are not careful in our approach to containing the by-products of the industrial world. Label by Kelly Conway