Self-proclaimed spin-doctor of the Chinese art world, Zhou Tiehai's reputation is built on his success at peddling a 'cure' for the supposed ills afflicting the contemporary artists of the 1990s. His 'cure' has frequently taken the form of 'fake' art. His air-brushed reproductions of masterpieces from western art history incorporate incongruous elements such as the 'Joe Camel' cigarette-brand figure. For Tate Liverpool, Zhou Tiehai has explored his on-going concerns about cultural identity in a dramatic new gastronomic form. For The Real Thing Zhou Tiehai has commissioned a top chef to prepare three French desserts that will be served at the dinner to celebrate the opening of the exhibition in a work entitled Le Juge, Le Ministre, Le Diplomate 2007. Zhou Tiehai chose France because the nation is synonymous with cuisine, producing the desserts according to the innovative combinations of flavours and textures for which French food is famed. The sheer accumulation of facts, anecdotes, presumptions, histories, theories and rumour are presented as historic justification for each of the three desserts. The ever-widening sphere of references threatens to take in the whole of French history and undermines the authenticity of the desserts as they seek the firmer to embed themselves in the authority of a definitive history. For those unable to sample the desserts at the dinner, Zhou Tiehai is producing a limited-edition wax version of each dessert that can be purchased at the Tate Shop in Liverpool.

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