THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

In The Coca-Cola Project of 1970, [Cildo] Meireles got hold of empty Coca-Cola bottles, Coca-Cola being perhaps the symbol of American consumer capitalism. Onto these he silk-screened political messages in the same white ink as the bottles’ normal painted Coca-Cola symbol and brand information. As such, the messages remained more or less unnoticeable. However, Meireles then reintroduced the bottles into the system. They returned to the factory in the normal way, where they were washed and refilled. Once the brown liquid came to function as a background to the white lettering, the anti-imperialist message stood out.

Wood/Conceptual