Folpo Nero / Maria Grazia Rosin

Maria Grazia Rosin was born and raised in Venice, and she trained as a painter at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1992, she experimented with glass for the first time. Rosin has applied her inventiveness and humour to two of the most traditional Venetian forms in glass: the chandelier and the table centrepiece. This is one of a series of chandeliers in the form of octopuses and squids that the artist has made with the master glass-blower and glass sculptor Pino Signoretto. With its waving arms, murky colour, and staring eyes, the octopus evokes the mysterious depths of the ocean. This subject is perfect for Venice, a city that has had a long association with the sea. This extraordinary chandelier is both a sculpture and a lighting fixture. One of the arms of the huge octopus acts as the vertical shaft of the fixture, and the creature’s remaining arms (five large and two small) are shaped into the traditional arms of the chandelier. The invertebrate’s eyes are illuminated with fibre-optic lighting, and the deep black of the glass is enlivened with iridescent purple, blue, green, and gold sparkles. A small red squid hangs from the bottom of the chandelier — via Corning Museum of Glass