I’ve been thinking deeply about how to perfectly merge the theme of the exhibition with bar culture—something that not only enhances audience engagement but also makes the exhibition more immersive through interactive elements. That’s when I came up with the idea to design a special cocktail menu titled “Intimacy in a Glass.”
This menu embodies the core theme of the exhibition—intimacy and emotional transformation in the digital age—and each cocktail is inspired by a specific artwork, allowing visitors to experience the emotional depth and intellectual ideas of the exhibition through taste.
Here are a few of the cocktails I’ve designed so far, each with its own unique story and source of inspiration:
False Wife Martini
Inspired by Jamie Crewe’s False Wife
This cocktail reflects the fluidity of identity and shifting emotional landscapes explored in Crewe’s work. With its gradient hues and complex blend of spices, each sip evolves just like the relationships portrayed in the exhibition. As the drink is stirred, its color slowly changes—symbolizing the instability and complexity of intimacy.
Ingredients: Gin, juniper, strawberry liqueur, and a touch of blue edible dye.
This drink invites the audience to reflect on the interplay between identity, power, and closeness—through both visual transformation and layered flavors.
Hole in the Heart
Inspired by Margaret Salmon’s Hole
Warm in color and rich in spiced fruit flavors, this cocktail speaks to expressions of love and emotional depth. Each sip feels like a direct touch to the core of human vulnerability. I particularly love the name—it represents both emotional absence and the need for connection, echoing the exhibition’s exploration of love in all its complexity.
Aromatic, introspective, and heartfelt—this drink lingers in both taste and thought.
Power Punch
Inspired by Rachel Maclean’s Spite Your Face
Bright red and intensely flavored, this cocktail represents conflict, control, and the raw dynamics of power. A spicy kick paired with pomegranate juice creates a bold flavor profile that mirrors the visual intensity of Maclean’s piece.
It’s a drink that doesn’t hold back—confrontational, vivid, and unapologetically strong.
With this cocktail, I want visitors to feel the tension and power struggles explored in the artwork—through the punchy, almost aggressive flavors on their tongues.
Echo of Memory
Inspired by Mike Kelley’s Unfinished Archive
This cocktail carries a nostalgic, vintage essence—symbolizing fading memories and emotional dissolution. Sweet with a touch of bitterness, it lingers like a half-remembered dream or an unresolved story.
It’s reflective, wistful, and layered, much like Kelley’s archive—a sensory echo of what once was.
I find this drink especially moving, as it resonates with the idea of memory not just as content, but as emotion—half-lost, half-cherished.
Each cocktail comes with a small card—a kind of tasting note-meets-artistic statement. The card includes the cocktail’s name, its inspiration, and a brief narrative. These cards are not just drink descriptions—they act as an extension of the exhibition itself. They guide the audience to a deeper understanding of the artworks while encouraging them to experience art through the senses.
By creating this menu and the accompanying cards, I aim to add a new layer of interactivity to the exhibition. Visitors don’t just see the artworks—they taste them, feel them, and reflect on them in a multisensory way. Each drink becomes a point of entry into the emotional and conceptual world of the exhibition.
This cocktail menu is not just an addition to the show—it is part of the exhibition’s architecture. It carries the core artistic messages and delivers them directly to the audience, one sip at a time. Through this experience, I hope to show that art doesn’t only live on the canvas—it can also be felt in the details of a drink, in the shift of a color, or the lingering warmth of a spice. It is a way to reach people’s inner worlds, through both art and taste.
