There’s Coca-Cola in the Soil and the Sugar Rush Will Only Last So Long (2021) was part of the HYPERLINK show at the C33 Gallery within Columbia College Chicago, which was put on as we were starting to come out of the first wave of Covid-19 in 2021. 

There’s Coca-Cola in the Soil and the Sugar Rush Will Only Last So Long (2021) was an exploration of death happening within an environment made to simulate the essence of life. At the beginning of the installation, the environment had a sense of promise: the promise of future growth, indicated by recently-dated seed markers in the soil; the promise of a healthy plant, which had plenty of light to feed off of; the promise of excitement, which a disco ball fills the room with. However, by the end of the installation, we were left with an image of despair—the seeds didn’t grow and the plant was dead. The plant was documented everyday, and its progress was shared on the Instagram account created for the gallery. As the installation came to an end, some of the documentation was taped up on the back wall. These photos help us to relive the memory of when our plant, and environment, was alive—contrasting the image of glorified life with the reality of decay.