THE PALACE OF THE MIND

China, 2019
11 min
Three-channel video installation

The Palace of the Mind emerged in a rare historical moment. Through the mediation of my friend, the philosopher Robin R. Wang, I was granted access to a Daoist nuns’ monastery in China — a space exclusively reserved for women. I was the first Western artist permitted to film there.

This access was possible only within a brief time window. After decades in which religious practice had remained largely in the background, Daoism was re-evaluated by the state. Monasteries were restored, funding increased, and a cautious sense of renewal became visible. This phase was open — and at the same time fragile.

I lived with the nuns without a shared language. They spoke no English; I spoke no Chinese. We shared time, rituals, and everyday life. Communication emerged through presence, gaze, and repetition. The camera was not an instrument of distance, but part of a delicate and growing trust.

When the political situation shifted again, I was required to leave the monastery abruptly. The work continued in a Kung Fu school in the Wudang Mountains, where Daoist thought persists through bodily discipline. Between female interiority and male-coded physical practice, a structural tension emerged.

The three-channel installation connects these experiential spaces. It does not ask about spirituality as image, but about philosophy as embodied practice — in the body, in everyday life, within a political context that can shift at any time