top of page

a coke a day keeps the thoughts at bay

Writer's picture: nj foxnj fox

Updated: Jul 3, 2023




 

a coke a day keeps the thoughts at bay is an interactive performance. when tasked with creating an art piece from something collected over a semester, i immediately thought of all the coke i drink. i secondly thought of all the poetry i wrote. i write poetry for the same reason i drink coca-cola: it keeps me sane. many would say i have a dependency on the beverage and they wouldn't not be right. i also depend on poetry to keep me from bottling up my emotions and thoughts and feelings. so i collected my coping mechanisms. i could have easily had this be an installation piece instead of an interactive performance but i wanted to put people in my shoes - i wanted to force my voice on my classmates and my teacher. i gave them five minutes to pick out their can and their poem. some people took their time, other's took one without looking at its contents. the result was a mix of people reading poems they resonated with and people who read poems that had no significance or meaning to them and was just words they were being forced to say.


the cans are covered in washi tape, partially to keep my classmates from cutting their fingers on the cans but also to emulate the way i use these two coping methods to soothe myself from the sharpness of the outside world.


this is a project i hope to revisit in the future.

Comments


bottom of page