Photography by Roland-von-der-Emden,Yau Wen and Kovács István
3 hours, 13 . 09 . 2013 @ Sète, outdoor market
ZeZette (traditional cookie from Sète,France) I ate the first fortune cookie when I arrived in London. It’s a Chinese symbol created by American consumerism but not popular in Mainland China. Shaped like the folded version of local cookie zezettes. I plan to invite audience to think, interact and make me as a Chinese zezettes. I set inside a box cover and decorated like a table. Only head is visible. Covered with note that reference the words people found in Chinese fortune cookies. Baking ingredients for Zezettes are places on the table labelled with different meanings. Audiences are invited to cover my head with:
30 min, Photography by Roland-von-der-Emden, Joachim Axelsson and Yau Wen
Live chicken, tent, soup, knife, and 10 min film projection @Sete, Infr’action12.09.2013
My mum was born at the Chinese year of rooster, she has a scar like the shape of a rooster. She always describes herself as the elegant proud animal. Born in 1957, her childhood was during The Three Years of Great Chinese Famine. In her memory, killing and eating a rooster was a family celebration, a joyful experience that only comes once a year and often shared by the whole street. Invited by me, my mum killed, de-feathered, de-gutted, cooked and finally ate a rooster. Recorded from my mobile phone through Chinese social media, this footage was projected in the background. In contrast I was holding and comforting a live chicken, later audiences were invited to drink chicken soup with me.
Three Cannon Balls (traditional dish from Chengdu, China) My head and two heads are covered by glutinous rice that sculptured as balls, There are three bows of sauce: soybean powder, Chinese red sugar and sesame seeds. Each sauce is labelled by me: soybean powder: Culture Heritage, Chinese red sugar: Communism education, and sesame seeds: Westernization. Audients are invited to dress me with choice of those three sauces.