The Nature of Trance

2025 Individual Work

19.7 × 19.7 × 23.6 inch
Acrylic sheets, motorized rotating base, and acrylic paint on wood panels.

A rotating cosmology: Sun, Moon, and Tree shamans, who embody natural forces, orbit the viewer, their spiraling, downward gaze generating a space of ritual.The work seeks to revive ancestral ontologies that once decentered humanity. We are not above nature—we belong to nature. By using rotation to induce a gentle trance, the piece invites the viewer to empathize with spiritual practices and renew their reverence for the natural world.

Sun:
Face based on a Sun-deity mask from the shamanic collection of the Heilongjiang Museum.

Moon: Face based on a Moon-deity from the same collection.

Tree: Represents Tree-deity, with “root-like” feet gesturing to the underworld of shamanic cosmology.

Apply the three figures to a sealed cylinder, place it upon the viewer's head, and rotate slowly. The motion makes the Sun, Moon, and Tree shamans appear to orbit the viewer from above, inviting a trance-like procession.

Yu Xia

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The Nature of Trance