Hsu Chia-Wei often engages in his work with the history of a tiny island in the Taiwan Strait, which is overseen by a local god named Marshal Tie Jia. This frog deity emigrated to the Matsu archipelago half a century ago, after his home temple in the mountains of Jiangxi was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
Spirit-writing reconstructs a rare dialogue with the Marshal. The islanders communicate with their god through a ritual during which they shake the sedan chair in which he is housed. By interpreting its strikes against an altar, they receive answers to their questions. In this instance, the Marshal was invited into the film studio by the artist—who shares the nature of his project with the deity—and was asked to describe the temple from which he was exiled.
This interaction is represented in a two-channel installation that combines documentary footage of the ritual with a digital reconstruction of the temple based on the god’s descriptions. The artist reads displacements in time and place through contemporary media technology, using green screens, voiceovers, and doubled narratives to reveal how images are produced, staged, and mythologized. Techne here is the art of conjuring: a cinematic apparatus that doesn’t hide its own illusions, but lays bare the processes of storytelling.
