Horses for the Gods

Horses for the Gods is lo­osely based on a Chin­ese-Vi­et­nam­ese trad­iti­on, where fam­i­lies bring fo­od of­fer­ings to the kitch­en god(s) short­ly be­fore new yea­rs. Each yea­r these kitch­en god(s) re­port to the ce­les­tial em­per­or ab­out the fa­mily’s be­hav­iour. The ce­les­tial em­per­or deals out go­od luck to those fam­i­lies that be­haved well. The ce­les­tial Emperor spre­ads go­od for­tune to the fam­i­lies that be­haved well for one yea­r. The na­rrative and spe­cif­ic use of fo­od of­fer­ings dif­fers be­tween these two cul­tures.

In this in­stal­la­ti­on I attemp­t to con­duct sym­bo­lic ba­r­ter with an un­known oth­er, this could be the kitch­en god(s) or the au­di­ence. As wrap­pings for my of­fer­ings I have cho­sen a re­adymade green ra­in ba­rrel, and re­used one of my oth­er works I'm Dre­a­ming. Ike­a serves as a ve­hi­cle for redis­cov­ering my spir­itua­lity.

• Contents of the bags:
• Honey and Wine - In the Chin­ese trad­iti­on a de­picti­on of the kitch­en god is mount­ed next to the stove. His mouth is sme­a­red with hon­ey so that it be­comes stick­y, or wine is poured over him to get him drunk. After this rit­u­al the kitch­en god is un­able to bring a sen­si­ble re­port to the ce­les­tial em­per­or.
• Three Fish - The Vi­et­nam­ese peo­ple a­re con­vinced that the kitch­en god(s) make their ce­les­tial jour­ney on the backs of ca­rp.
• Tree - The pe­ri­od in which the kitch­en gods a­re short­ly in heav­en, the house is unpro­tected a­ga­inst e­vil. To kee­p this e­vil at bay, a kum­quat tree is pur­chased.

• Mushrooms
• Soil
• Apples