A large black mass in a red container — Detail of desiccated cola-ash. Photo courtesy of the artist.

He Xiangyu 何翔宇

Chinese, born 1986

Artist Profile

Coca-Cola was already widely consumed in China by the time He Xiangyu began his first major work of art, Cola Project (2008–12). As part of this series He manipulated the soda, subjecting it to physical and chemical (or alchemical) change.

For many, Coca-Cola is an icon of Western culture and consumerism, however, He has transformed this ubiquitous product into a medium for artmaking. He’s process consisted of boiling down sixty thousand bottles of Coca-Cola in batches, destroying the soda itself in the process, until he was left with desiccated cola-ash. At first, He worked alone, and it took more than six months to boil down one ton of soda. With the help of a crew of migrant workers, all working in a lumber mill outside He’s hometown of Dandong, Liaoning, however, the artist industrialized his process to mass-produce the soda ash. In total, the artist reports boiling down 127 tons of soda.

Cola Project has been presented in a number of different iterations that experiment with the substance in different ways. Included in this exhibition are nine sketches for different iterations of the project along with A Barrel of Dregs of Coca-Cola, which features cola-ash encased within a metal display vitrine.

He Xiangyu. Photo courtesy of the artist.

“When you increase the temperature to a certain degree, the Coca-Cola will slowly solidify, but before it solidifies it will bubble and emit a white smoke. When the white smoke has evaporated, it will solidify and become like a multicolored crystal.”
—He Xiangyu 1