The Authentic Quality
Performance, Installation(Mixed Media) 2014
The fact that one cannot arrive at the same result as the image of the food package, even though he/she follows the recipe, is an obvious non-trick trick. Although Gu knows that the image is a good-looking fake made as an “example,” she follows it to the very end. In regards to the course of this work, that has no coerciveness yet is just being strict to itself, the question “Why you don't prefer not to do it?” would be more appropriate than merely asking “Why do it?” Dedicating a considerable amount of time and energy in adjusting the angle of a single grain of rice with a pair of tweezers does not seem a mere exposé of the real behind the illusion of an image. Rather, this work can be viewed as an extension of the artist’s continuous inquiry into the issue of speed and practice, through the experience of labour. Gu focuses on the fact that one can spend infinite time on this kind of “endless work.” If we accept the accustomed notion that the image and the real are not identical, curry will be ready in three minutes, and cooked-rice will be done within a minute and a half. If we accept this, there is no disappointment, but once we start to question it, the problem expands to three hours, to six hours. One can even readily devote two years to it. The time of the “instant” continues endlessly.
Haeju Kim / Extract from ‘Taste and Flavour’ on Minja Gu’s work ‘The Authentic Quality'
