If this hectic Korean society runs at an average speed of a car, an ordinary person has an engine with the speed of a bicycle. Gu’s engine seems even slower than this. Yet, does the slow speed only portray a peaceful and calm world? Not a chance. The loss of a sense of speed by contrast revives the ability to doubt the familiar world. As the puppet show has the background slowing down and ultimately coming to a halt, what runs is not the car, but the picture in the frame. Gu has expressed a different sense of speed by copying an entire novel instead of just reading it, like in Thirty (2006), or has finished a marathon by walking the course for two days rather than running it, like in 42.195 (2006). Like Molloy, she continues the repetitive task of taking a stone out of her right pocket and putting it into her left. The question of speed is a question of the system, and contains a strong protest by stating “why can’t I do it this way?”
Extract of 'Taste and Flavour' about Minja Gu's work 'The Authentic Quality' by Haeju Kim (Independent Curator)
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