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Taste of Desire

Ritual performed at Leymusoom SarangBang Grand Opening (레이무숨 사랑방 개장 행사 // 六毋神之舍廊房慶典) at 41 Ross on April 15, 2022.

photography by: Robert Borsdorf

In a Chinatown alleyway, artist and translator demoing how to make clay cups to a crowd in front of table with ceramics
Arm reaching to table with ceramic object to take a piece of clay
Hand holding small sphere of clay
Two hands forming small clay cup
Crowd of people making small clay cups
Close up of table, tray with ceramic cups of many colors, artist with red pants wearing a long pointy ceramic object, bottles of liquid
Hand selecting a small cup from the ceramic tray
Crowd of people, many masked, waiting in front of table. Artist, wearing a ceramic object, watches a woman drink from a small ceramic cup.
Close up of artist is pouring liquid into a small blue ceramic cup that a participant is holding
Crowd of people, many masked, waiting in front of table. Artist, wearing a ceramic object, is pouring liquid into a small ceramic cup that a woman is holding.
A tray holds 60 clay cups. Around the tray are varous clay objects, small paper signs, sand and gochugaru on shiny black fabric
Close up of small clay cups of various shapes
About a dozen clay cups of various shapes, some round, some star shaped, some with holes, arranged on sand and gochugaru. A hand holds one cup.
A small booklet with a short poem titled "Evocation" with translation to Chinese. A small cup sits to the right of the booklet
TO CLEANSE ALONE SHEDDING / TO WANT ALONE SQUEEZING / DESIRE IS UNENDING / TO EAT TOGETHER SLOWLY / TO DRINK TOGETHER GULPING / FULL OF WANTING

I began this ritual by reading from my mythology. Viewers were invited to take a small piece of clay, and mold it into a cup while thinking about a desire they had.

These clay cups were offered in exchange for a tiny ceramic cup I had made. I poured makkoli, a traditional Korean rice wine, into the cup, or sikhye, a Korean rice punch (as a non-alcoholic alternative.) Over 40 participants drank to their desires, and then splashed a second drink onto the building, to bless the space.

These small cups and tray are based on Protestant communion cups and serving tray I grew up using.

This ritual was performed in a community oriented space, alongside other artists of the Korean diaspora in Chinatown, San Francisco. I used saekdong fabric, a traditional colorful Korean pattern, said to be spiritually protective.


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