Duke Riley’s first foray into glass reimagines a Joy dish soap bottle, etched with a whale destroying a ship, drawing on his long-standing fascination with both maritime history and single-use plastic pollution. Joy, the first liquid dish soap, was released in 1949 with the slogan “A little goes a long way"; and the soap originally came in glass bottles. In 1962 they briefly transitioned to cans and then to the plastic bottles that are still used today. A little goes a long way merges the aesthetics of early American souvenir culture with Riley’s layered storytelling, which often blurs the line between fact and fiction to explore themes of empire, labor, and the role of the artist in society.

While Riley is known for his ambitious installations and performance works, this edition marks his first foray into glass, a material once synonymous with mass tourism and American naval expansion. Each bottle carries subtle variations.

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Etched glass, 11 in x 5 in x 3.25 in, variable edition of 10