See Frank Gehry’s anniversary bottle for Hennessy X.O

When does an object, such as a decanter, make the transition to work of art? According to architect Frank Gehry, it’s as simple as ‘when the artist says it has’.

Frank Gehry’s bottle.

In honour of Hennessy X.O’s 150th anniversary, architect Frank Gehry, now 91, was asked to design an object to house the iconic cognac that would reflect the magnitude of the occasion. The result is a limited edition, $25,500 gold-dipped bronze decanter cupped by a glass glorifier and a perfect visual representation of the terroir of the Hennessy X.O. Only 150 of the bottles will be available for purchase across the world, with just a handful coming to Australia.

To gain inspiration, Gehry went to the liquor’s wellspring in Cognac, France. “Bernard Arnault took me to the [Charente River] … where I met the people, went to see the barrels, and studied the history of the Maison,” he says. “The decanter was inspired by the distinctive elements of the birthplace of Hennessy X.O: the rich soil of the land and the river upon which the Maison Hennessy sits. Bernard took me to the town, and had me tour all of the barrels and warehouses and meet the people who are in charge of the containers. I got a pretty good sense of how detailed their working process was to produce this liquid and the varieties that they produce to get to the Zenith, the best one that they were asking me to make the bottle for. It was mesmerising. I knew stuff like that must have happened but when I saw it in person it was quite enlightening.”

The architect at work

The finished product is an eye-popping display of conflicting details. The sinuous lines of the X.O bottle are now hidden beneath an intricately crumpled, shimmering gold surface that causes light to brilliantly reflect off innumerable facets, refracted by the bed of shattered glass below – an effect that recalls the play of sunshine hitting the surface of the Charente as it flows over a riverbed of rocks. A fusil made of gold and brass, reminiscent of the Hennessy cellar master’s ritual to extract the cognac, finishes the design.

“I wanted this collaboration with Hennessy to be more than a decanter, but a sculpture,” explains Gehry. “Using strong but elegant materials enabled us to make a strong shape while projecting beauty.” This juxtaposition creates a deliberate tension between the hard lines of the casing and the softness of the bottle’s shape; the cool, sharp texture of the gold’s edges with the warm glow of the liquid within. 

Gehry’s sense of space and form is infamous in architectural and design circles. A winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, he is known for his deconstructivist approach, in which elements of the design are broken down and deliberately left to look unfinished. His style could almost be described as volcanic. Steel and glass structures, such as his Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, explode forth from the earth they stand upon, deliberately jarring with the surrounding landscape. Gehry’s first work in Australia, the $180 million Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at Sydney’s University of Technology (UTS), drew polarised responses from the public. Some, such as then-governor general of Australia Peter Cosgrove, lauded it as an instant icon while others immediately compared it to a crumpled paper bag. 

Architect Frank Gehry

How this informs Gehry’s approach to product design is in the emphasis on the object’s materiality and the haptic experience of the holder. “When we design buildings, we do a lot of research on materials, exterior skin and interior materials and things,” he explains. “So we’re used to studying the character materials and what they can do. We’ve got a pretty good repertoire of almost every material in existence, or we’ve at least studied it. Especially metals, [which we use a lot for] buildings for its reflectivity and its tactility.”

“Years ago, I went to Delphi and stood in front of a statue that was made by an unknown artist. It’s called The Chariot and the Statues of the Charioteer. I looked at it and it’s in bronze, and it was very old. The feeling of it was so strong that I started to cry, and I realised that somebody 500, whatever, years earlier or more was able to create something with an inert material that elicited emotions from a character like me. So I thought, I know when you look into the Greek bronzes from that period, like the prize fighter and other great ones, you’ll hear ‘they’re so powerful’, and a feeling generates. So I wanted to do something that did create a feeling.”

The finished article

But it’s history that, according to Gehry, is the most important detail of his work. Not just the history of the region or landscape he intends to build, but what role the finished product will play in history to come. “History is an important consideration with all my work,” he says. “When we design buildings we take into consideration the scale of the surrounding buildings and the history of the city. There is such a great history for Hennessy X.O that it’s powerful. I started with their heritage ... and then came up with something new within that culture.”

If you’re not among the lucky buyers of one of the 150 limited edition bottles, a wider release of the Anniversary Edition, also designed by Gehry, will be available. This includes the signature Hennessy bottle encased in a gold cardboard and plexiglass case with Gehry’s signature.

This commemorative bottle marks the third time LVMH has worked with Gehry. Previously, he had been brought on board to design the Fondation Louis Vuitton Art Museum, an iceberg-like structure rising out of the ground in the Bois de Boulogne on Paris’ western side. In 2014, the architect dabbled in accessories with Louis Vuitton to contribute to a limited-edition bag as part of a capsule collection for the company’s 160th anniversary, and more recently on the Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul where he designed a curved roof that blended traditional Korean architecture with billowing forms reminiscent of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. 

This ongoing relationship, says Gehry, has created an extended family. “I love working with the incredible teams at all of the LVMH brands,” he tells WISH. “[I’ve previously] had some involvement with Bernard Arnault and his team on [the Fondation] in Paris ... and I’ve been working on other product designs with them, just because I get interested and they say ‘how would you think about this bottle? Can you figure out how to make it nicer?’ I love doing that. I love the challenge. And it’s an honour to be asked ... So it’s become a kind of family for me, I guess.”