DOK:Rice Cake
In Dok:Rice Cake, I engaged in a deeply immersive and collaborative performance with a local shop owner in Anyang’s open-air market. I asked her to show me how to make dok (rice cake), a staple food in Korean culture. The challenge was that neither of us spoke the other’s language, so we communicated solely through hand gestures, expressions, and physical actions, relying on touch, instinct, and shared focus to bridge the linguistic gap. The performance took place in the shop itself, with the market's vibrant life unfolding around us, as others wandered through and occasionally joined in.
The simplicity of the act—making rice cakes—became an intimate yet public exchange. As I followed her movements, I found myself not only learning a traditional culinary process but also being drawn into the rhythms of the market and the community. The experience was both grounding and humbling, as I was enveloped by the shared labor of food preparation, a practice that binds people together across cultures and generations.
Through the creation of dok, I was initiated into the traditions of the market and its people. During this time, I also had the opportunity to listen to the women shop owners discuss community issues, their concerns intertwined with the act of making food. In many ways, the simple, repetitive task of preparing a staple food like dok allowed for deeper conversations to unfold. The performance underscored the power of tradition to foster connection, as well as the role of shared experiences—whether through food, culture, or labor—in uniting individuals despite differences in language and background.