Rirkrit Tiravanija
Optional display Dim Sum cart 78 x 43 x 83 cm
6 Basket steamer (body) 7.5 x 17 x 17 cm
4 Basket steamer (cover) 4.8 x 17 x 17 cm
1 Chicken feet 13 x 13 x 3.5 cm
3 Zongzi 8 x 8 x 9 cm
3 Cha Siu Bao 5.8 x 6 x 3.5 cm
3 Shu mai 5.5 x 5.5 x 4.5 cm
4 Xiao long bao 5.5 x 3 x 5 cm
4 Dumpling 5.5 x 2.5 x 3 cm
Further images
Provenance
This is a very special work as it has been commissioned specifically for the exhibition in HK and focuses on the essential Chinese social practice of having dim sums on Sundays spending time with family and friends and sharing special moments. The dim sums and the baskets have been made by hand in Jingdezhen. The dim sums are black and hollow as they refer to the notion of the 'void', a reminiscence of something that has been lived and is no longer there. Where only memory lasts but not the object itself.The 'void' ritual dates from the times of Victorian England, where after the main meal the guests were served hollow sugar cakes in the shape of the meat they have just consumed.
I copy and paste a short paragraph on the the ritual below:In Elizabethan England, with the rise of modern subjectivity, a difference emerged between the “substantial” food (meat) eaten in the great banquet hall and the sweet desserts eaten in a separate small room while the tables were cleared (“voided”) in the banquet hall. Eventually, the small room in which these desserts were consumed came to be called “the void.” Consequently, the desserts themselves were referred to as “voids,” and, furthermore, in their form, usually in the shape of an animal and empty on the inside, they came to imitate the void. The emphasis was on the contrast between the substantial meal in the large banquet hall and the insubstantial, ornamental, dessert in the void: the void was a “like-meat,” a fake, a pure appearance. It could be, for example, a sugar peacock that looked like a peacock without being one (the key part of the ritual of consuming it was to violently crack the surface to reveal the void inside).
The acquisition of Untitled (freedom cannot be simulated, Sundays are for dim sum), 2015 also includes the right to the performance.
There are 2 Rirkrit's dim sum carts available. You will see that the selection of dumplings varies from one trolley to another (one trolley contains chicken feet). The work comes with the performance certificate and instructions, as well as cooking recipe suggestion.