INVOCATION, 2019
4K Video. Color. 2:58 min. Sometimes shown as part of Community of Parting
Invocation (2019) is a performative video exploring the delicate interplay between body, nature, and cosmos. At first glance, the artist is spinning on her own axis, captured in close-up from an aerial view. As her spinning movement intensifies, the centrifugal force unleashes the drone with which the image is filmed into the air. The perspective shifts to a bird’s eye view as the camera ascends and the spinning figure becomes a mere dot within an immense, snow-patched volcanic landscape on Jeju Island, South Korea. The shift in scale traces a movement from the embodied self towards a world beyond, evoking both vulnerability and a profound connection with nature and cosmologies.
The video is accompanied by a soundscape composed around a chant by the late shaman Koh Sunahn, recorded during a ritual she offered for the artist in 2018. Her voice resonates through the landscape, almost activating and infusing the spinning motion with a ritual energy. The chant functions as both invocation and vibration, weaving together sound, movements, and nature. Invocation (2019) traces the transformative shift from a singular spinning body to a cosmic whole, in a motion that is simultaneously intimate, ritualistic, and transcendent.
Directed and performed by Jane Jin Kaisen. Directors of Photography: Daniel Zox, Guston Sondin-Kung. Ritual chant: Shaman Koh Sunahn. Music composition and sound mix: Udo Lee. Color: Guston Sondin-Kung.