“Dreams have always been where shamanic learning and healing takes place.”– Shaman Li-Chun Lin (Marina)

Introduction by Jo Shu-Wen Hsiao

In art, we always prize the pursuit of intellectual insight. From subject matter to the questions that manifest themselves in materials, a work’s vocabulary is inseparable from its meaning. In 2015 Yin-Ju Chen began to study altered states of consciousness – “ordinary” and “non-ordinary” states of consciousness, the “subconscious” and the “unconscious” – studying with shamans to learn the process and mindset of altered consciousness as the basis for her art. Notes on Psychedelics (2015) considered how a drug (DMT) conveys our consciousness to an unknown spiritual dimension. In Notes on Psychedelics II: Inside a Memorable Fancy (2018-2019), the artist used her personal experiences of shamanism to reference and document an individual’s altered states of consciousness, revealing a fantastical, inscrutable, mysterious “journey” and presenting the transcendental experience of shamanic ritual. In Sonic Driving (2018-2021), she collaborated with the shaman Marina Lin to activate a trance in the brain through sound waves, enter a shamanic universe.Notes on Psychedelics III: 2-19-20 continues the depiction of altered consciousness in this series of works. Unlike works produced around visual symbols and concepts, it reveals the artist’s past clairvoyant experiences and dream notes, and from them it extracts images, creating scenes that shift between dreams and consciousness, exuding an atmosphere of mysticism reminiscent of occult rituals, when shamans become possessed and enter an indistinct, oblivious state. Here, consciousness serves as a vehicle for the source of many insights into life, the universe, time and space, and it leads us to accept the guidance of a higher form of life. When we enter the space that Yin-Ju Chen has arranged, soundwaves trigger our perceptions, ushering us into an experience that is real yet transcends reality. Next, the dim lighting in the room brightens, opening a space of complex ambiguity. All these actions always take visitors to unexpected places, where they linger and wonder what will happen next. This is quite thought-provoking. But they must first think about what they encounter by accessing their senses, and let their mind and body sink into the experience.Yin-Ju Chen’s space of images formed by sound, lights, objects, drawings and videos generates an abstract, spiritually animated world. They are the “dreams” that exist within consciousness. She believes that dreams from the depths of our consciousness can awaken both our minds and our souls. On the surface these mirages seem fragmentary and scattered, but they open up a broader dimension in the human state of consciousness, and in the mind of the artist they serve to create a level of inner perception. In this work, external things shatter our customary mindset. These highly psychedelic techniques are an attempt to induce the visitor’s powers of sensory perception, putting them in a state of excitement, paralysis, rapture or quiescence, and thus enter a deeper mental dimension where consciousness and dreams run free within our emotive sensations. Yin-Ju Chen focuses on the hidden spiritual abilities of people in modern society. She uses the language of mental images to manifest a spatial topography, constructing an oblique “scene” and revealing an “other” space to express a certain hidden mindfulness that is innate in human beings. At this moment, this work touches an unpredictable realm of imagination, embedding the immaterial within material reality, in an attempt to reconfirm the ultimate pure land of the soul that we hope to preserve.

文／蕭淑文

在藝術裡，我們始終關注的是知性的追尋。從主題到材料體現的問題，作品的語彙和它的意義密不可分。自2015年，陳瀅如開始研究意識轉換 ─「尋常 意識」、「非尋常意識」、「潛意識」、「無意識」， 並通過薩滿學習意識轉換的過程與思考，作為她創作基礎。〈致幻記〉（2015）觸及藥物（DMT）把我 們的意識帶到一個未知的精神維度。〈致幻記 II： 刻幻象〉（2018-2019）藝術家以親身經歷之巫儀經驗作為參照紀錄個人的意識轉換狀態，揭露其中奇幻難懂的奧秘「旅程」，呈現薩滿儀式中的超覺經驗。〈Sonic Driving〉(2018-2021)，她與薩滿林麗純合作，藉由音波啟動大腦的出神狀態，並進入薩滿宇宙觀。〈致幻記III : 2-19-20〉延續其系列作品關於意識轉換的描繪。不同於圍繞著視覺符號和觀念生產的作品，它透露過去藝術家的靈視經驗與夢境筆記，並從中提煉意象，創造出在夢境和意識之間轉換的場景，散發出一種神祕主義的氛圍。如同巫祭儀式，巫師在神靈附體時，進入一種忘我的迷離狀態。在這裡，意識是承載諸如生命觀、宇宙觀、時空觀的源頭，它引領我們接受一種更高生命的指引。當我們走入陳瀅如部署的空間，聲波啟動我們的知覺，讓我們經歷一種真實但超越現實的經驗。接下來，房間裡的燈光從暗到亮，撬開一個複象多義性空 間。這一切運作，讓觀眾總是在他們意想不到的地方發生，他們待在那裏懷疑著會發生什麼事件，相當耐人尋味。但眼前，他們必須先通過感官來思考，讓他們的精神與身體沉淪其中。陳瀅如的意象空間以聲音、燈光、物件、素描及影像，營造出抽象的靈動世界，它們是存在於意識裡的「夢」。她相信從屬於深層意識中的夢境，能把我們的神經和心靈一併喚醒。表面上看似瑣碎散亂的幻象，但它們開發了人類意識狀態中另一個更為廣闊的維度，在藝術家心裡用以創造一個內在的知覺層次。這個作品，外在的東西打破我們慣常的智性，這些展現一種更具迷幻的手法，企圖誘發觀眾的感應力，使他們處於亢奮、麻痺、著魔、停頓狀態中，以此進入更深層次的精神向度，讓意識和夢境在感性中奔馳。陳瀅如聚焦在文明社會中人被隱蔽的心靈能力，她用意象語言體現空間形貌，建構一個隱晦不明的「場景」，揭顯「另一個」空間表達人與生俱來的某種深藏的意識思維。此時此刻這個作品觸及關於想像和不可測的界域，將非物質嵌入物質現實中，試圖再度辯證我們想保存最後的心靈淨土。