Practical items — a standard vase or a drinking glass, for example — are typically associated with glass blowing. Their design lies in the hands of the gaffer, the one who asserts the creative decisions as a small team spins molten glass. And while the practice allows for some decorative household commodities, it can also generate art to communicate a message.

Through their state of the art glass lab, University of Wisconsin allows the student organization Mad Gaffers to manufacture both generally proficient products and visionary pieces.

Heather Sutherland, Mad Gaffers president and UW graduate student, crafts glass for reasons beyond practical decoration, she said. Through her lustrous art medium, Sutherland invites her audience to mull over the human condition, particularly what she describes as its “duplicitous and symbiotic nature.”

Sutherland protests the way the media enforces the perception that everything is binary. She instead holds dear the unifying power of the human condition and its ever-changing fluidity. She encourages a dialogue surrounding gender and sexuality.

Her passionate views are a threshold for her art, and her current showcase seeks to prompt this mode of thinking.

“I feel like I should be able to wake up in the morning and just decide — instead of creating this performance of what these culturally invented society constructs are telling me I have to be,” Sutherland said.

With the aid of an old professor, Sutherland unearthed her passion for glass blowing at an art conference during her undergraduate years at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Though she originally had not intended to pursue this line of work, she gravitated towards the practice immediately and found herself studying within UW’s glass department years later.

Now a graduate student, Sutherland attributes her success to Harvey Littleton, the man behind the UW Glass Lab’s furnace that facilitates the Gaffers’ efforts. She said in 1962, Littleton founded the American Studio Glass Movement, allowing aspiring glass blowers to affordably pursue what used to solely be an industrial practice.

“He basically was able to bring glass to the people,” Sutherland said. “So, he brought it to the artist’s studio instead of just to this big industry.”

Sutherland’s showcase, running from Feb. 21 to Feb. 25, incorporates her fervent message about the human condition with three tents, each approximately 10-by-6-feet tall, sheltering her glass art within. In addition to a hefty amount of neon and lights to accentuate her work, she turns to materials outside of the glass realm to diversify her project.

Thanks to niche pioneers like Littleton, the Mad Gaffers and other practicing art organizations allow passionate folks to delve into what fulfills them and propel it into something tangible. For Sutherland, with the sheer heart behind her method, she is able to drive her message of sexuality forward — and encourage fearlessness in doing away with gender constructs.

“I think the only way we can make that happen is for other people to create their own authoritative voice,” Sutherland said. “You can see that’s starting to happen. But in order for that to happen faster, we need to make a louder voice.”