24 GU DEXIN ðìľ To create this work, the artist pinched a piece of pork every day, taking a photograph of the moment until the pork finally became too dry. The viewer is led to imagine Gu, a man full of life, sitting there pinching the "water" and "blood" out of a dead life, experiencing the constant contact between life and death. However, what the viewer experiences is only the elegance of false pretences and the ritualistic scene in a temple-like space. The photographs of hands pinching the pork are neatly arranged, like a series of abstract paintings. The pieces of dried pork are laid on a table in the middle wrapped in red cloth, like the remains of the deceased waiting for others to pay their last respects. Gu has deliberately created a distance between what the viewers had “seen” and the real “meaning” that he had obtained in creating the work, so as to conceal what only he had experienced. What Gu created was only an inflammatory scene, a tentalising hint at the true significance. Meat C-print. 10 works (163x149 cm each). 1997-98.
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