上海紐約大學當代藝術中心（ICA）開幕了台北藝術家陳瀅如和薩滿林麗純（Marina）的作品展。閉上眼睛，你就會知道最初於 2022 年 3 月開業，但由於 Omicron 的爆發和隨之而來的上海封鎖，僅僅八天后就關閉了。
該展覽是 ICA 第二個雙年展藝術研究項目“另一種知識是可能的”（2021-23）的四部分系列中的第二部分。該項目旨在探索被忽視或壓抑的知識形式——例如，在陳和林的案例中，從薩滿教實踐中獲得的洞察力。
“巫師是靈媒，他們能夠通過改變自己的意識來獲取其他人通常無法獲得的信息，”ICA 助理館長 Iris Zhu Sicong 說。 “他們利用這些信息來幫助和治愈社區成員。”
展覽由一個單一的藝術項目組成，Sonic Driving，這是陳和林的共同合作。通過他們的作品，藝術家們邀請觀眾體驗和試驗薩滿教的方法。視頻和聲音裝置，以及繪畫和繪畫，為遊客創造了一種身臨其境的體驗。
展覽的標題也起到了為觀眾指明方向的作用。 “我希望觀眾能夠放下他們的懷疑，為神奇思維的奇蹟騰出空間，”林說。 “我們可以閉上眼睛看更多，關閉大腦了解更多。”
薩滿教的習俗首先讓陳和林走到了一起。他們第一次見面是在 2015 年，當時陳正忙於另一個藝術展。直到三年後，林聽到內心的聲音告訴她去找陳，他們才重新建立聯繫。
“我什至不記得她的名字，”林說。
兩人再次相遇——巧合的是，就在陳的第一次死藤水儀式後一周——後來陳參加了林的一個薩滿教研討會。
“林是我的老師和巫師，”陳說。
同年，兩人開始合作開發《音速駕駛》。陳發現將薩滿教作坊與她的藝術相結合是卓有成效的。 “除了像往常一樣展示藝術品，讓觀眾體驗薩滿之旅是這個項目最重要的因素之一，”她說。
展覽包含地墊，邀請參觀者躺下，感受擊鼓聲在他們身上沖刷。 4 月，作為展覽的一部分，ICA 還舉辦了在線甲骨文組裝研討會，林在會上指導參與者進行薩滿之旅。
Sonic Driving 的名字來源於薩滿巫師使用敲擊聲進入意識改變狀態的方法。在展覽本身中，這種敲擊聲一直存在。林的鼓聲的八聲道聲音裝置為參觀者創造了身臨其境的體驗。此外，展覽中心的兩個揚聲器營造出雙耳音效，兩種頻率略有不同的音調同時播放，營造出一種只有大腦才能感知的特殊聲音。雙耳音頻效果在薩滿教中以誘導意識狀態改變而為人所知。
展覽的核心是林的水墨畫。這幅畫描繪了漢字 wū（巫），意思是“薩滿”或“巫師”，是許多薩滿文化宇宙觀的關鍵符號。該角色由代表天地、上界和下界以及男人和女人（或陰陽）的元素和連接天地、陰陽的薩滿世界支柱 mundi 組成。陽 - 用於在所有三個世界之間旅行。
這種三層宇宙觀也體現在展覽的作品中。除了聲音裝置之外，天花板上的四個投影代表了中間世界——林和陳於 2018 年在台北和上海舉辦的研討會的記錄。在這些工作坊中，藝術家們引導參與者尋找能夠回答“100 年後我們的世界會是什麼樣子？”等問題的神諭。和“未來人工智能將如何影響人類？”
展覽的上層世界由陳的影像裝置呈現，她作為專業藝術家工作了二十多年，並在國際上展出了她的作品。在視頻中，陳將前往蒙古北部和西伯利亞貝加爾湖（薩滿教的發源地）的實際旅程與她通往上層世界的精神之旅的隧道般可視化交織在一起。
與此同時，一塊大板展示了陳的六幅水彩畫，代表下層世界。這些畫作記錄了陳的巫術實踐。這些圖像構成了陳成功進入地下世界地點的地圖，鉛筆標記標明了每次旅行的日期以及她所觀察到的情況。
“我來到了這個奇怪的地方，”一個標記說。
“地面是深紅色的，”另一個開始。
陳的水彩畫之一，用於展覽的“地下世界”部分。圖片來源：朱振宇。
Hyun（上）在“The Way to Mandala”藝術家講座中採訪 Chen（下）的屏幕截圖。圖片來源：Zoe Yuyang Zhang
展覽的互動性質延伸到教育節目。儘管上海的封鎖造成了中斷，但全年都有在線研討會和講座。除了甲骨文工作坊，林還於 4 月發表了關於靈知薩滿教和魔法的演講，5 月，策展人兼作家沈伯良與前博士後助教焦宇鵬就藝術和招魂術進行了討論。最近，陳在 10 月 22 日發表了題為“通往曼陀羅之路：連接自我與宇宙的藝術實踐”的藝術家演講。
An exhibition featuring the works of Taipei-based artist Yin-Ju Chen and shaman practitioner Li-Chun Lin (Marina)has opened at NYU Shanghai’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). Close Your Eyes and You Will Know originally opened in March 2022, but was closed after just eight days because of the Omicron outbreak and ensuing lockdown in Shanghai.
The exhibition is the second of a four-part series that comprises the ICA’s second biennial artistic research program, Another Knowledge Is Possible (2021-23). The program seeks to explore neglected or repressed forms of knowledge — such as, in Chen and Lin’s case, the insight derived from shamanic practices.
“Shamans are spirit mediums who are capable of shifting their consciousness to obtain information not ordinarily available to other humans,” said Iris Zhu Sicong, Assistant Curator at the ICA. “They use that information to help and to heal community members.”
The exhibition consists of a single artistic project, Sonic Driving, which is a joint collaboration between Chen and Lin. Through their work, the artists invite audiences to experience and experiment with shamanic methods. Video and sound installations, along with drawings and paintings, create an immersive experience for visitors.
The title of the exhibition also functions as directions for the audience. “I wish for the audience to be able to suspend their disbelief and make space for a miracle of magical thinking,” said Lin. “We can close our eyes to see more, and turn off our brains to know more.”
Shamanic practices brought Chen and Lin together in the first place. They first met in 2015, when Chen was working on a different art exhibition. They did not reconnect until three years later, when Lin heard an inner voice telling her to look for Chen.
“I didn’t even remember her name,” Lin said.
The two met again — coincidentally, just a week after Chen’s first Ayahuasca ceremony — and later Chen attended one of Lin’s shamanic workshops.
“Lin is my teacher and shaman,” Chen said.
That same year, the pair began collaboration on Sonic Driving. Chen found it fruitful to integrate the shamanic workshops with her art. “Other than exhibiting artwork as I normally do, having the audience experience the shamanic journeys is one of the most important factors in this project,” she said.
Students view the exhibition in the ICA gallery.
The exhibition contains floor mats, inviting visitors to lie down and feel the sound of the drumming wash over them. In April, the ICA also hosted an online oracle assembly workshop as part of the exhibition, in which Lin guided participants on a shamanic journey.
Sonic Driving takes its name from shamans’ use of percussive sound to enter an altered state of consciousness. Within the exhibition itself, this percussive sound is a constant presence. An eight-channel sound installation of Lin’s drumming creates an immersive experience for visitors. Moreover, two speakers at the center of the exhibition create a binaural audio effect, in which two tones with slightly different frequencies play at the same time to create a special sound perceived only within the brain. The binaural audio effect is known in shamanism for inducing an altered state of consciousness.
At the very heart of the exhibition is an ink drawing by Lin. The drawing depicts the Chinese character wū (巫), which means “shaman” or “sorcerer” and serves as a key symbol of many shamanic cultures’ cosmology. The character is comprised of elements representing heaven and earth, the upper and lower worlds, as well as men and women (or yin and yang) and the axis mundi, the world pillar, which the shaman – who connects heaven and earth, yin and yang – uses to travel between all three worlds.
Lin’s ink drawing of the wū (巫) cosmology. Credit: Zhu Zhenyu
This three-tiered cosmology is also reflected in the work in the exhibition. In addition to the sound installation, the middle world is represented by four projections on the ceiling — documentation from workshops that Lin and Chen hosted in 2018, in Taipei and Shanghai. In these workshops, the artists guided participants to seek oracles that would respond to questions such as “What will our world look like 100 years from now?” and “How will artificial intelligence affect humans in the future?”
The upper world of the exhibition is represented by a video installation made by Chen, who has worked as a professional artist for over twenty years and has exhibited her work internationally. In the video, Chen intertwines physical journeys to northern Mongolia and Lake Baikal in Siberia — where shamanism originated — with a tunnel-like visualization of her spiritual journeys to the upper world.
Meanwhile, a large board featuring six of Chen’s watercolor paintings represents the lower world. The paintings are documentation of Chen’s shamanistic practice. The images form a map of places where Chen successfully entered the lower world, and pencil markings indicate the date of each journey as well as what she observed.
“I came to this strange place,” says one marking.
“The ground surface was of crimson color,” begins another.
One of Chen’s watercolor paintings for the ‘lower world’ portion of the exhibition. Credit: Zhu Zhenyu.
Screenshot of Hyun (top) interviewing Chen (bottom) during “The Way to Mandala” artist talk. Credit: Zoe Yuyang Zhang
The interactive nature of the exhibition extends to educational programming. Despite the interruption caused by Shanghai’s lockdown, there have been online workshops and talks throughout the year. In addition to the oracle workshop, Lin gave a talk on gnosis-shamanism and magic in April, and in May, curator and writer Boliang Shen led a discussion with former Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Yupeng Jiao on art and spiritualism. Most recently, Chen delivered an artist talk titled “The Way to Mandala: The Artistic Practice of Connecting the Self to the Universe” on October 22.
Close Your Eyes and You Will Know is open for viewing at the ICA gallery on weekdays from 11:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. until December 16.