FENG MENGBO | CAN

In 2022, Feng Mengbo partnered with TEN X Digital Studio and created a limited edition of sculptural works of Coca Cola Can from his seminal video game art, Long March; Restart, 2008. In this fully playable large-scale game, a Red Army soldier navigates twelve levels using Coca-Cola cans as weapons – an image that distills one of the defining tensions of modern China, loaded with the contradictions of a nation remaking itself. His use of Coca Cola cans played on the historical significance of China’s opening when the introduction of Coca Cola came to symbolize western consumption culture and capitalism in China in the late 70s. Sculpted in various marble and white onyx, these objects are stripped of their ephemeral, mass-produced origins. Given the weight and permanence of classical sculpture, these consumer icons are elevated to the status of cultural relics, bridging the gap between 8-bit digital history and geological time.

Long March: Restart is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), LACMA, M+, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and the White Rabbit Collection.