Kay Rosen | Martini Glasses

Kay Rosen

Martini Glasses

Chicago, USA: Renaissance Society, 1997

Pair of etched glasses

Edition of 100

Two martini glasses with engraved and painted letter “O” on each, one in white and one in green. The work was produced for Table of Contents, a benefit for the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in November, 1997. Other artists produced plates, canisters and napkins. 

“[Holly Hunt] did allow, though, that a pair of martini glasses she bought for $75 two years ago at an auction at the Renaissance Society, a contemporary art museum at the University of Chicago, are a better union of form and function than the glasses she herself sells. Simple glasses engraved with the letter ''O,'' they were part of a limited edition designed by the witty text artist Kay Rosen, who, like Ms. Hunt, is a native Texan transplanted to the Chicago area.

''It's a perfect little piece of sculpture,'' Ms. Hunt said. ''It has a great hand to it -- and with martinis, the handling is as much fun as the alcohol. With this, you don't slosh because it has a little inward lip at the top.

''And it's a little heavy,'' she added, ''so it's very well balanced -- you feel comfortable holding it and walking around.''

That is, as long as she does not fill it to the top: the glass holds nearly eight ounces of high spirits, unlike the more modest and fragile four-ounce martini glasses that she sells.

[...]

The Renaissance Society had given Ms. Rosen a choice of items to design, and she opted for the martini glass because of its varied connotations, danger and decadence among them. ''It carries a lot of significance with it,'' she said. And while the O she engraved stands for olive or onion, she noted that, as with a martini, people are free to read into it whatever they will.

Ms. Hunt, too, appreciates the playfulness of the O, with its suggestive, cipherlike quality -- a martini with a purely thoughtful twist. And as an advocate of design that functions well, she likes the fact that these glasses look best when being used.

''There's real sex appeal to the shape of the glass and the way one holds it,'' she said. Still, she is glad that she bought only one pair. Given the nature of their appeal, more than two would be a crowd."

- David Colman, New York Times, 2003