VAV - moving image
Performance with wood, rice, plaster and water
In Battered Comfort, my sister and I batter rice with hammers until it turns into tteok 떡 (rice cake) which we eat together with the audience. Eating tteok is a communal act which generates belonging, whereas battering it is violent and creates pressure. By pounding on the individual, society is formed – like rice grains pounded into tteok. Nevertheless, tteok is all about sharing: through violence a sense of belonging and comfort is created. Belonging and pressure exist in the same space and need each other.
(Hammering also serves as a catharsis for my struggle of belonging in Korean culture. As a German-Korean, it is difficult to fit into my mother’s country. No matter how hard I pound, I will not become that rice cake.)
In collaboration with my sister Katharina Sook Wilting and my mother Dong Sook Park.
![](http://rietvelduncut.rietveldacademie.nl/media/pages/2023-refuge/battered-comfort-no-matter-how-hard-i-pound-i-will-not-become-that-rice-cake/41740b5d5f-1707334042/2023-fridaynightrietvelduncutinclmeetthemastersrainbowsoulclub-stedelijkmuseumamsterdam-maartennauw-099-1500x.jpg)
![](http://rietvelduncut.rietveldacademie.nl/media/pages/2023-refuge/battered-comfort-no-matter-how-hard-i-pound-i-will-not-become-that-rice-cake/82a7df5ad8-1707334296/2023-fridaynightrietvelduncutinclmeetthemastersrainbowsoulclub-stedelijkmuseumamsterdam-maartennauw-111-1500x.jpg)