Yin-Ju Chen

Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800

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.