installation

monoliths, obelisks, crop circles, etc. as communication tools to report back on human actions to their mother planet. Channeled through a psychic medium named Lucia, a video introduces us to these translated messages from Adama, High Priest and spiritual leader of the Lemurians. A graphic representation in the space highlights the multitude of possible relations between the delivered information (human actions), their mediums (so-called minimal and conceptual works), and the space in which they evolve (universe).

Extrastellar Evaluations focuses specifically on the 1960s as a key historical era for both Lemurians and humans. For humans, the 1960s denoted a complex interrelation of cultural and political events worldwide amid the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the beginning of the Cold War (1962–1979), the enduring Vietnam War (1955-1975), Africa’s independence movements, Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1976), African-American civil rights movements and 1968 protests in Europe, the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to name a few. For Lemurians, this era was marked by a series of severe weather events that disturbed their transmission routes, such as record-breaking flooding and snowstorms (1955/56, 1959, 1964/65, etc.). ² Pushed far beyond the immediate vicinity of Mount Shasta as a consequence, the Lemurians sought new forms of and locations for communication with their motherland. They initiated prolific creations of geometric-shaped

transmission devices on a national scale, made visible by human interpretation and appropriation as conceptual and minimalist artworks.

Revisiting dreadful human actions of the 1960s through the lens of outer space intelligence, Extrastellar Evaluations questions our understanding of our past while encouraging different interpretations of our existence on earth. In this context, the multimedia installationopens consciousness toward the risks of human activities, echoing today’s anxieties toward issues of global warming, continuous conflicts and exploitation of resources. In addition, mirroring its past, present and future, Yin-Ju Chen’s work addresses early signs of our becoming lost in this world. In doing so, the artist echoes theorist Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s observation of humans’ loss of faith in the reality of life, suggesting a larger, long-term phenomenon rather than a recent trend linked to the development of media and information technology.³ In light of Lemurians’ ambiguous presence on earth, the installationalso implies the inevitability of the cycles of history, sealed by an external force–as evidenced by Chen’s 2012 three-channel video installation One Universe, One God, One Nation examining the dictatorship of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek. Considered alongside this latter body of work, Extrastellar Evaluations develops the scope of Chen’s long-term consideration of notions of “power” and collective (un)consciousness.

By re-examining historical incidents through the lens of the occult, Chen is not only attempting to rethink the subjective awareness of history writing in textbooks from the past, she is also questioning whether such actions by humanity are inevitable under the predetermined and inexorable laws of the universe, whether these laws constitute a form of cosmic force majeure. Corresponding to the belief that purification and perfection are achievable through violent means, in the artist's video work, the planet Mars represents the god of war and Pluto represents the utter persecution and destruction that precedes the reconstitution of order. This underlying concept is similar to Jung's belief that one's natal chart could represent a prototype of collective human consciousness. In critiquing Chen's work, critic Rikey Cheng pointed out that "natal charts are a form of intellectual temptation for their audience, as their symbolic meaning only surrenders to the manipulation of the hand that draws the chart, provided that information is masked and phases are purposely made vague… And these sketches adhere more closely to the labors of ancient astrologers rendering natal charts by hand in the absence of computer technology. Rather than bringing audiences an instant chart readout with internet technology, they lead viewers on a voyage of discovery towards the soul."¹

1 From "A User Guide to Internal Maps", Rikey Cheng's commentary at Yin-Ju Chen's 2014 Dead Souls at the Test Drive exhibition.

texts source: 2014 Shanghai Biennale - Social Factory