Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800
2018 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
16:50 minutes
Yin-Ju Chen
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 sharing similar palette
© » ARTS EQUATOR
“Peter and the Starcatcher”: An Invitation to Suspend Disbelief Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles October 22, 2018 By Casidhe Ng (1,100 words, six-minute read) The final show of Pangdemonium’s 2018 season, Peter and the Starcatcher is this year’s equivalent of Fun Home or RENT , an exuberant and expensive production intent on ending their year with a bang...
© » KADIST
biarritzzz
2015biarritzzz is interested in how the development of the internet, and experimentation in the virtual world happens simultaneously with the experimentation in the material world of the human species; and how these developments reflect the precariousness of life within neoliberalism...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
“Cloth as Land” at JMKAC Presents Textiles as a Wellspring of Hmong Indigeneity Skip to content Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj, “I sat closely and watched it crumble and unraveled and crumbled and unraveled and...” (2023), Coca-Cola can and embroidery thread (image courtesy the artist) HMong* indigeneity is complicated by centuries of political conflicts, displacement, erasure, and disorientation in HMong homelands of China and Southeast Asia...
© » KADIST
Wang Mowen
2019In Trinity , Wang Mowen uses video to tell the story of a young woman who wants to know the whereabouts of a person born sixty years ago...
© » ARTREPORT
Come In From the Blizzard: Outsider Art Fair – Art Report News ARTISTS Artist Highlights Artist Interviews Studio Visit VIDEOS ART+ Community Listicles No Result View All Result News ARTISTS Artist Highlights Artist Interviews Studio Visit VIDEOS ART+ Community Listicles No Result View All Result No Result View All Result Come In From the Blizzard: Outsider Art Fair by December Projects Jan 27, 2016 in NEWS 0 Cai Dongdong, Klein Sun Gallery...
© » KADIST
Teresa Burga
2019In her new series titled Ninas Peruanas Cusquenas , Teresa Burga depicts young indigenous women from Peru’s Andean region, dressed in traditional garments...
© » KADIST
Taiki Sakpisit
2011A Ripe Volcano , a collaboration with Yasuhiro Morinaga, revisits two sites of violence and aggression in Thailand’s recent past: The Rattanakosin Hotel, the site where the military troops captured and tortured the civilians, students and protestors who were hiding inside the hotel during the Black May of 1992; and Ratchadamnoen Stadium, a Roman amphitheater-style Muay Thai boxing arena, which was built in 1941-45 during the Second World War and since then has become the theatrical labyrinth for more acculturated and commercially “acceptable” displays of bloodshed...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Malaysian theatre goes digital; Vietnam's film industry | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar KLPac March 27, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
© » SLASH PARIS
Biennale de Venise — 2024 — 60e édition — Jardins de la Biennale de Venise — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Biennale de Venise — 2024 — 60e édition — Jardins de la Biennale de Venise — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Biennale de Venise — 2024 — 60e édition Exhibition Mixed media Upcoming Biennale de Venise © Slash-Paris, 2022 Biennale de Venise 2024 — 60e édition In 12 months: April 20 → November 24, 2024 STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT ROBERTO CICUTTO : “The choice of Adriano Pedrosa as curator of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is the result of a process that grew out of our experience of working with Cecilia Alemani...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
ArtsEquator Turns Two! | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints November 15, 2018 ArtsEquator is two years old today! 🎉 Aside from our original reviews, essays, podcasts and visual essays, we’ve also organised programmes to strengthen performance criticism and critical discourse...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: New Filipina superhero; capturing seniors of Saigon; refugee kids in Penang musical | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar Photo: School of The Arts, USM September 5, 2019 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
