"In all (the processes taking place) under heaven, what is there of thinking? What is there of anxious scheming? They all come to the same issue, though by different paths; there is one result, though there might be a hundred anxious schemes.”
Taiwanese artist Chen Yin-ju (陳瀅如) will hold a solo exhibition in the UK as part of an ambitious co-commission marking Manchester's position as the 2016 European City of Science.
Hosted by the Center for Chinese Contemporary Art and supported by the Liverpool Biennial, "Extrastellar Evaluations II” is an exploration of cosmic events and human behavior through mythology, science, and art.
The research-driven exhibition is a contemporary take on Galileo's "A Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,” in which Ptolemaic geocentrism and Copernican heliocentrism present two widely different world views.
From dystopia and conspiracy to art history, Chen probes for whether our solar system is imbued with a consciousness. Her research also addresses the philosophical implications of varying degrees of sentience, roughly measured from a grand and neat outline of the highest order to "a hundred anxious schemes.”
Cosmic questions aside, Chen also attempts to reconcile modernism with spirituality, prompting viewers to think about coexistence as a probability.
Chen, 39, was just featured in the 2016 Liverpool Biennial, in which her "Extrastellar Evaluations” sprung from the concept of the lost continent Lemuria. More information can be found here.
The sequel "Extrastellar Evaluations II” - comprising audiovisual installations, objects, texts, and illustrations - will run at the Center for Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester from Oct. 21 through Jan. 15, 2017.
‘Extrastellar Evaluations II'
- Date: Oct. 21, 2016 - Jan. 15, 2017
- Venue: Center for Chinese Contemporary Art
- Address: Market Buildings, Thomas St, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1EU, UK
- Site: www.cfcca.org.uk
- Artist: www.yinjuchen.com