Re-examining Conservation; Exhibition at Brown University, Rhode Island USA Curated by Creature Conserve
“Taste Happiness” Gouache on Paper A3
Overview
Feature artwork in sci+art show curated by Creature Conserve
Exhibition: Re-Examining Conservation:
Re-Examining Conservation brings artists, writers, scientists, and other creatives together for an exhibition and multi-day symposium exploring pressing issues in the conservation of animals and their habitats. All events are free and open to the public.
Location: Brown University, Rhode Island USA
Artists Statement
“Taste Happiness” (Coca-Cola’s 2021 corporate slogan) responds to litter thrown from car windows, found on the artist’s morning walks along the outskirts of the regional country town of Braidwood, NSW. Bright red, glistening in the morning dew, inherently eye-catching, as is the nature of the millions, if not billions, of dollars spent on branding and marketing design, reiterated to perfection since its inception in 1886. This artwork pictures the globally recognised brand as the artist finds it: squashed, discarded, abandoned, ownerless, homeless. Rosellas forage around it, mistaking it for flowers or seeds. It is part of the landscape, but not of it.
Though aluminium is infinitely recyclable, the cans lie here, tossed aside… reiterating the capitalist ritual of consumption, now complete. What lingers is not the drink, but the object: designed to seduce, now left to rust.
Billions are spent refining its form, selling a “real feeling” for the briefest moment of consumption. And then discarded. Abandoned. A red flash in the grass, glinting like a flower, distracting birds and slowly melting into the bush - seeking belonging.
Presented by Brown Arts Institute and Creature Conserve. Creature Conserve is working in conjunction with Tomaquag Museum’s Indigenous Empowerment Network (IEN) in efforts to further amplify the voices of the Indigenous community in Rhode Island. To learn more about IEN, visit tomaquagmuseum.org/ien.
Coca Cola as a symbol in ongoing works..
The brand coca cola has featured quite a few times in my work, emerging again through an ecological art residency I undertook in 2023 at Guapamacataro Art & Ecology Residency, Mexico.
At the time of the residency, my father was in the hospital and passed away two weeks after I returned home. This deeply personal timing influenced my reflections on the cultural practices surrounding death and ritual in Mexico. I was struck by their reverence and rich traditions in contrast to the comparative absence of ritual around death in Australia. This exploration shaped my use of symbolic imagery and the word “transcendence” within the work, a meditation on the layers of belief and ritual woven into life and death.
The residency also offered space to investigate communication design, power, and subversion in art. Inspired by Mexico's cultural melting pot and rebellious history, I drew on everything from hand-painted signage to archaeological artefacts. Conversations with fellow artists and my own research led me to local rituals involving shamans, where offerings to gods (like a pineapple) are central to the ceremony. I was particularly captivated by syncretic traditions, such as the use of Coca-Cola in Maya-Catholic rituals in San Juan Chamula. In these ceremonies, Coca-Cola is believed to expel evil spirits through burping, blending global consumerism with ancient spirituality. This striking juxtaposition of old and new revealed how cultural rituals adapt to modern influences, becoming tools of both resistance and resilience.
Read more about this art residency here
