-Pittsburgh Corning Glass Block- still bank c. 20th century

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to the "Pittsburgh Corning Glass Block - still bank", a found-object sculpture from the 20th century. Editor: Well, it certainly has a stark, utilitarian elegance to it. The light plays wonderfully on the surface. The transparency offers a kind of spatial play as well, even at this scale. Curator: Absolutely. Here, the Pittsburgh Corning Glass Block Corporation repurposed its signature material, a glass block, turning it into a promotional coin bank. You can still make out "Save With Pittsburgh Paints" pressed into the glass. Editor: It's fascinating how the act of framing currency, something ephemeral and constantly circulating, in a solid, nearly indestructible material like glass suddenly imbues saving with a sense of permanence, a kind of solidity it doesn't possess otherwise. Curator: It also raises interesting questions about the nature of advertising and the commodification of everyday objects. This bank shifts the object from functional building material to a collector's item, blurring the lines between art, utility, and advertising. The fact that this sculpture is a bank that says ‘save with pittsburgh paints’ indicates how deeply entwined business and the individual were/are. Editor: True, its appeal also comes from the interplay between its apparent ordinariness and inherent artfulness. One expects building materials to serve merely as elements of a built form, but here we have glass given a voice as a distinct form. Its rigid, almost geometric aesthetic carries an industrial edge, but that industrial edge speaks more to functional Modernism than to harsh manufacturing processes. It’s streamlined and direct in its intention. Curator: Perhaps this merging of purposes and concepts embodies a key characteristic of design from this era – and indeed one sees related trends mirrored across contemporary work. Editor: Indeed. I found myself surprisingly contemplative about this block of glass. Thank you for the insightful explanation.