Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800

2018 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

16:50 minutes

Yin-Ju Chen

year born: 2011
gender: female
nationality: American & Taiwanese

Extrastellar Evaluations is a multimedia installation produced during Yin-Ju Chen’s residency at Kadist San Francisco in the spring of 2016. Chen’s project departs from a 19th century theory popular within Western biogeography that posited the existence of a “lost land” or ancient continent called Lemuria that had sunk beneath the Indian and Pacific Ocean due to cataclysmic geological change. As a result, its inhabitants, the Lemurians, found refuge in Mount Shasta, California. Through a semi-fictional approach, the video component of the installation Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800 envisions a version of history in which the Lemurians lived among humans in the 1960s under the guise of various renowned conceptual and minimal artists (Carl Andre, Mel Bochner, and James Turrell to name a few). The video proposes that humans interpreted and appropriated the geometric-shaped objects the Lemurians created as conceptual and minimalist artworks, when in fact, the objects were transmission devices used to report human actions to their mother planet. Key to understanding the entire installation, the video component takes the form of a channeled message from Adama, High Priest and spiritual leader of the Lemurians. In the video Adama attempts to give viewers clues to decipher the history of the Lemurians, the purpose of their existence on earth, and information about the identities of their agents (artists). The work questions our understanding of our past, while raising consciousness toward our existence on earth. In this context, the installation highlights the risks of human activities, echoing today’s anxieties toward issues of global warming, ongoing conflicts, and exploitation of resources. Addressing earlier signs of humans’ loss of faith in the reality of life, Chen’s work suggests a larger, long-term phenomenon rather than a recent trend linked to the development of media and information technology.


Yin-Ju Chen is a multidisciplinary artist, working in video, photography, drawing, and multi-media installation. She interprets social power and history through cosmological systems, using astrology, sacred geometry, and alchemical symbols to consider themes of human behavior, nationalism, imperialism, racism, state violence, totalitarianism, utopian formations, and collective thinking. Recent works illustrate the inevitability of cycles of history, developing the scope of Chen’s long-term consideration of notions of power and collective (un)consciousness. Chen was in residency at KADIST San Francisco in 2016.


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Film/Video, » United States, » American & Taiwanese

Horizontal Striation Scrap Lamp and Vertical Striation Scrap Lamp
© » KADIST

Jason Meadows

2009

The Striation Scrap Lamps (vertical and horizontal) although functioning as utilitarian objects also represent Jason Meadows’s interest in a certain kind of crafted sculpture...

Donald of Doom Tank
© » KADIST

Kristen Morgin

2008

Donald of Doom Tank (2008) is a replica of a vintage metal toy with Donald Duck’s image one side and a soldier on the other...

No World
© » KADIST

Fang Lu

2014

No World is an action-filled video work filmed inside an abandoned museum in the Songzhuang area outside Beijing...

Jeep Comics
© » KADIST

Kristen Morgin

2008

Jeep Comics is based on the second of only two issues published by RB Leffingwell and Company in 1944–45...

Vanishing Point
© » KADIST

Xiaoyun Chen

2014

The central point of Vanishing Point is the most direct physiological reaction of the body to the environment...

The Magic Mirror of John Dee
© » KADIST

Joachim Koester

2006

Physical and mental exploration have been founding elements in Joachim Koester’s research for several years...

PANGKIS
© » KADIST

Yee I-Lann

2021

PANGKIS by Yee I-Lann is a looped video performance...

In the Collage II (Marie)
© » KADIST

Collier Schorr

2013

In the Collage II (Marie) (2013), Shorr seems to have an ostensibly clear subject, a female subject identified in the work’s title as “Marie,” a slim but athletic woman with brown hair pictured reclining atop a brilliantly white sheet draped against a marbled tan-and-white backdrop...

Lift with care
© » KADIST

Hu Yun

2013

This research-based artwork acts as a memorial to early twentieth century European exploration of China...

Until It Makes Sense
© » KADIST

Mario Garcia Torres

2004

Mario Garcia Torres imagines cinematic devices to replay stories occasionally forgotten by Conceptual art...

Up All Night, Waiting for the Chelsea Hotel Magic to Spark my Creativity
© » KADIST

Mario Garcia Torres

2010

In Up All Night, Waiting for the Chelsea Hotel Magic to Spark My Creativity Mario García Torres constructs and documents a hypothetical scene, situating himself within a lineage of artists and creatives that used to congregate at the historic hotel...

Cinema
© » KADIST

Fang Lu

2013

In the work Cinema , Fang Lu explores in a meticulous yet un-dramatic — almost casual — way of how “the self” in our today’s life is a controlled and staged construction of oneself...

Canton Novelty
© » KADIST

Fang Lu

2016

Canton Novelty by Fang Lu captures the adventure of a group of three girls, Ruohan, Lily and Zoe on a summer vacation in Guangzhou, China...

Restaurant, Canton, Ohio
© » KADIST

William E. Jones

2011

In Restaurant, Canton, Ohio (2011), a convenience store offers food, liquor, and Coca Cola to an empty street...

Killed
© » KADIST

William E. Jones

2009

Killed is a video projection in which William E...

Walking Through
© » KADIST

Koki Tanaka

2009

Walking Through is one of a series of videos—sometimes humorous, often absurd—that record the artist’s performative interactions with objects in a particular site...

State Terrorism in Ultimate Form of PreRaphaelite Brotherhood
© » KADIST

Xiaoyun Chen

2006

State Terrorism in the ultimate form of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood features a portrait of the artist wearing a zipped utilitarian jacket reminiscent of a worker’s uniform, with one arm behind his back as if forced to ingest a bundle of stick—a literal portrayal to the definition of fascism...

Office Voodoo
© » KADIST

Haegue Yang

2010

In addition to Yang’s signature drying rack and light bulbs, Office Voodoo includes various office supplies like CDs, paper clips, headphones, a computer mouse, a stamp, a hole puncher, a mobile phone charger...

Tarantism
© » KADIST

Joachim Koester

2007

Tarantism is the name of disease which appeared in southern Italy, resulting from the bite of a spider called Tarantula...

War Footage
© » KADIST

Mauricio Ancalmo

2010

War Footage is a series of wall-mounted works composed of 16mm film leader, tightly bound to flag-shaped panels by the artist...