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| Yin-Ju Chen's One Universe, One God, One Nation |
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文 / Rebecca Vickers
Yin-Ju Chen’s recent works focus on the function of "power in human society, nationalism, racism, totaliatarianism, collective thinking or collective (un)conscious" as well as "relations between the cosmos and human behavior." Yin-Ju discusses her recent work "One Universe, One God, One Nation," a three-channel video installation that incorporates iconic character Chiang Kai-shek, representations of mass conformism and ideas drawn from astrology and physical science to explore the ways in which movements of the "masses" on Earth are connected to the greater universe.
Your recent work, “One Universe, One God, One Nation” is described as a “visual mediation on power, modern forms of totality and totalitarianism, mass mobilization, devotion, the auratic, and the supernatural” - without doubt, a fairly expansive range of concentrations to consider within one piece. Could you please describe the inspiration behind “One Universe, One God, One Nation,” and how the various different conceptual components of the piece aided in the realization of said inspiration? The work also references Chiang Kai-Shek and focuses further attention on visual representations of mass conformism. Please discuss the inclusion of Chiang Kai-Shek as a character within your narrative as well.
Yin-Ju Chen: Much of my previous work focused on the function of “power” and “authority” in human society vis-a-via nationalism, racism, totalitarianism, group thinking and the collective unconscious. However, I am most interested in the concept and function of the “masses.” In this project, I focus on one particular period of history – China and Taiwan in the 20th century seen through the astrological charts of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (hereafter designated “CKS”).
CKS was a key player in modern Chinese history. He participated in and led the Chinese revolution, fought in the Chinese Civil War, and led Kuomintang (KMT) forces during WWII. Eventually, he brought the entire exiled, KMT government (The Republic of China) to Taiwan. He has indelibly shaped the destinies of China and Taiwan throughout the 20th Century.
If when I die, I am still a dictator, I will certainly go down into the oblivion of all dictators. If, on the other hand, I succeed in establishing a truly stable foundation for a democratic government, I will live forever in every home in China. - Chiang Kai-Shek
However, an artistic project about CKS is not a totally novel idea. How would I talk about his charisma, his power, and his influences differently than other artists and filmmakers already have? How would I reveal him and his legacy from a unique perspective? Moreover, I wanted this installation to be different than my previous works, while also exploring new artistic territory. My primary aim is to show how the masses worshiped CKS, or conversely, how CKS exercised his “power” over them.
Rather than showing too much footage of CKS in the piece, I instead focused on the phenomenon of mass conformism. In other words, this video installation only shows CKS for less than 20 seconds, as it focuses more on the crowd. It shows how the masses created their own leader, how they cheered him on, how they grieved, and how they kept their dictator in power, even after his death. Even if viewers don’t know who CKS is or was, they will still know that he is a dictator. We are savvy enough to recognize ourselves in the masses, and most of us have idols of some sort. In my thinking, conformism is hard-wired in most human brains. Tyrants don’t just appear out of nowhere, we sculpt them ourselves. We are all accomplices.
I began with Hannah Arendt and of how she was captivated by the first satellite launch in 1957. She claimed that the human desire to go into space wasn’t simply motivated by scientific curiosity, but rather by the desire to escape. However, unlike her, I wasn’t interested in the perspective of space from the Earth, but rather in the perspective of the Earth from space. In other words, I was asking the following astrological questions: How does the heavenly sphere, or more scientifically, how do astronomical objects look at human beings on Earth? How do the stars relate to each other and to people and events here on Earth?
We all know how the sun or the moon, or the sky and the weather affect our schedules and moods. My astrological thesis is that the planets in our solar system actually affect us here on Earth. Not counting the Earth, there are now only seven official planets (Pluto was recently classified as a dwarf planet, but it is still important in astrological interpretations). With the planets in mind, I combine ideas from astronomy with those of astrology, despite astronomers’ poor views of astrology. Physical science focuses on empirical facts and theses, which can be disproven, whereas pseudoscience deals with illogical predictions and unavoidable destinies. In my mind, they work together perfectly. It is this combination that informs my art. Dictatorships and totalitarianism require a certain charisma, mass mobilization, group thinking, devotion, and even the collective unconsciousness. My thesis is that everything that happens on the Earth is connected to the universe.
I understand that the original title of the project was in Chinese and was shortened a bit through the process of translation to English. Could you please share the meaning of the original (longer) title of the piece?
YJC: The original Chinese title is based on what CKS wrote for the Apollo 11 mission as a goodwill message. It was one of the 73 messages sent to the moon during the first moon landing in 1969:
It is our sincere desire that the astronauts, upon the date of their landing on the moon, will have made a significant contribution to a world utopia and peace through the universe.
What interested me is the second half of this sentence “…will have made a significant contribution to a world utopia and peace through the universe.” CKS connected the idea of world peace to a much larger dimension, namely the universe. By sending human beings outside of the Earth, somehow humanity could reach a utopia in space.
The English title, One Universe, One God, One Nation, was inspired by the song “Geburt einer Nation” by the Slovenian band Laibach. The song’s lyrics economically sum up some of my themes: “One flesh, one blood, a true faith…not wrong, not right…there is only one direction, an Earth and a people. A mission statement.”
The first video channel in the piece depicts Pluto and its astrological interpretation. Please describe the significance of Pluto, how you related it to WWII, and its description as a representation of “destruction, transformation, and healing in the language of astrology.”
YJC: An American astronomer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, discovered Pluto in February, 1930. In Western mythology, Pluto is God of the underworld, and in astrology, Pluto is the ruler of Scorpio. In astrological terms, Pluto connotes transformation, regeneration, and rebirth. For an entity to transform, regenerate, and be reborn, it must first be destroyed. Consider the early half of the twentieth century. The evolution of human civilization had to face the Great Depression and growing Fascist regimes. Furthermore, less than a decade after the discovery of Pluto, WWII turned the Earth upside down. And this led to the Atomic age.
Pluto has a long orbital period (248 Earth years), so astrologers claim that Pluto affects generations more than it does individuals -- a generation that destroyed much of the Earth and then rebuilt it again. Pluto works perfectly in this project, and it’s astrological meaning serves as a basic framework of the entire project.
You describe the launch of the first human instrument into space, Sputnik 1, as “an artificial object taking humanity away from the world and into the self.” In other words, you view space exploration as more of a rejection of boundaries (and being in the world) than say, an expansion of boundaries. Please talk about the idea of space exploration serving as a means to “world alienation.”
YJC: This idea comes from the German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). In her book The Human Condition, Arendt wrote:
This event, second in importance to no other, not even to the splitting of the atom, would have been greeted with unmitigated joy if it had not been for the uncomfortable military and political circumstances attending it. But, curiously enough, this joy was not triumphal [...] The immediate reaction, expressed on the spur of the moment, was relief about the first “step toward escape from men’s imprisonment to the Earth.” And this strange statement, far from being the accidental slip of some American reporter, unwittingly echoed the extraordinary line which, more than twenty years ago, had been carved on the funeral obelisk of one of Russia’s great scientists: “Mankind will not remain bound to the Earth forever.”
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first human-made instrument into space – Sputnik 1. According to Arendt, this action symbolized a desire to escape from the limited human world into the limitless sphere of the non-human. She called it “world alienation.” Escaping being-in-the-world or the natural human environment, Sputnik represents humanity leaving the world and returning to the self. This ”flight into the self” becomes a form of “inner exile,” according to Arendt – an inner world alienation that develops into a motive for the collapse of public culture and the subsequent rise of totalitarianism. Arendt’s analysis not only inspired this project from the very beginning, it also plays a crucial part in the work, despite perhaps not being totally obvious to the viewer. In this work, Sputnik 1 is featured as the only human-made object that orbits in space, like the planets and the moons. Images of the satellite are meant to be suggestive of possible interpretations, and not definitive.
Another element the work incorporates are ideas of predestination, the notion that everything happens for a reason. Please describe how predestination takes a role in “One Universe, One God, One Nation.”
YJC: Many of us have some experience with fortune telling, for instance, the popular daily, weekly, or monthly astrology predictions in many periodicals and newspapers.Sometimes historical events don’t make much sense to us from a scientific perspective, so we turn to “pseudoscience” and the idea of predestination. In my video project, I analyze CKS through the perspective of his horoscope, and I also apply astrological interpretations to some historical events. CKS was born on October 31, 1887, at noon, in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, China. In astrological terms, this means: Sun in Scorpio and at the Ninth House, moon in Aries, and ascendant in Capricorn. This combination suggests an individual who is headstrong, intense, persistent, and willing to possess leadership. However, this person would obtain his success in a foreign land (Taiwan).
The piece as a whole is displayed as a three-channel video installation. How does the format of the installation help the piece to succeed and the viewer to engage with the work? You described that, “the idea of time passing in a straight line is efficient for civilization, but if we listen to a few simple religious and philosophical suggestions, we can imagine time flowing circularly.” Did this perspective lead to the circular nature of the installation?
YJC: This is a very insightful question. Time is circular. This is a common concept in Buddhist religions, e.g., human life is a cycle, karma is cyclical, and the chain of causality is circular. As I mentioned earlier, the first video channel of Pluto with its astrological explanation works like a framework for the whole video installation. Viewers will see it before they see the other two channels. After watching them, the viewers exit and see the first channel again, but this time it will make a lot more sense as an astrological interpretation. And with this mind, the viewer can go back to the other two channels and perhaps understand more. In other words, the installation was designed with this possible circular experience in mind, and there was a Buddhist influence as well.
Lastly, you suggested that, “The old saying ‘history repeats itself’ has its own wisdom. Life is a cycle, as is history. It is our destiny, and there is beauty in destiny.” Could I ask you then, what are your plans for the future? Or perhaps better worded, what does history have planned for your next upcoming works?
YJC: My new project is about the ideas of perfection, transformation, and the relationship between humanity and the cosmos. This correlation between the cosmos and us will play a main role in some of my upcoming projects. Again, I will embrace science and pseudoscience in my forthcoming project, which is based on my recent operation and its accompanying medical issues, and on Paracelsus’ idea of the mystery of the macrocosm (nature) and the microcosm (human). By introducing Jung’s concept of synchronicity -- a deeper version of the “one world” concept (Unus Mundus) -- as a transition, this project will also integrate the esoterica of cosmological thinking and alchemy.
I will explore the connection between cosmic messages and human conditions. Following Paracelsus, “metals” will function as a mediator between the enigmatic cosmos and our limited human bodies. The ancient rituals of alchemy demonstrate that scientists and doctors have been seeking methods of purification, perfection, and ultimately, transformation for centuries, like the alchemic “philosopher’s stone.” Similarly, modern medical science has transformed the concept of perfection into the ideas of hygiene and health by emphasizing the invasive elimination or purification of infection, which can sometimes lead to violent consequences when taken to ideological extremes. In this sense, the aims of ethnic cleansing can be metaphorically related to pre-emptive surgical measures on one’s body.
My current project is an extension of themes from my previous project as a continuing exploration of the notion of “cosmic/ human connectedness.” Here the initial focus will be on the human body before widening the view onto the infinite cosmos. This project will be presented as a video installation, supplemented with objects, silk printings, and drawings.
Video Links:
One Universe, One God, One Nation | 40 sec excerpt | Channel 1
One Universe, One God, One Nation | 5 min excerpt | Channel 2&3
Original Text:
http://www.art4d.asia/interviews-detail.php?id=248 |
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