Visit the beta repository - bit.ly/advr_
“We help the dead to be or become what they are; we don’t invent them” — Vinciane Despret
Dream visitations — 托梦 — tuomeng — are a portal between realms, like two tin cans connected by string. 托 means to entrust with a message or request. 梦, dream, is made with forest and dusk; dreams then, are the dark, lush jungles we enter at night. In that darkness is a gate to the other side. At heart, tuomeng is a discourse on love, opportunity for recourse, remedy for loneliness, stream for divine aid — depending if the visitor is departed loved one, murdered individual, plant, deity, or other, “engaged in a joint transformative process with the living” (Magali Molinié).
Within the syncretic Chinese religious paradigm, 托梦 (tuōmèng) means to be visited in dreams by departed loved ones or deities with a message to convey. The scrying of these dreams, at times in informal consultation with Chinese religious goods merchants or mediums, is often a pragmatic act of inference for rituals sending money and gifts by fire.
Ancestor Dream Visitation Repository is a research experiment collecting, theorising and translating ancestor dream visitations towards new notions of lineage, remembrance and spirituality for the living descendant / future ancestor. Artistic processes alchemically transmute spiritual intentions into creative manifestations sitting between art and life. Occupying the thin veil space between sleep and wake, living and dead, ADVR posits expanded definitions of ancestor while cultivating a community of dreamers touching portals.
While the Repository emerges from research within the Chinese religious paradigm, it is secular and reaches widely to learn from different practices and perspectives. All are welcome regardless of background. Ancestors do not need to be biological.
poster design by XUE
“We help the dead to be or become what they are; we don’t invent them” — Vinciane Despret
Dream visitations — 托梦 — tuomeng — are a portal between realms, like two tin cans connected by string. 托 means to entrust with a message or request. 梦, dream, is made with forest and dusk; dreams then, are the dark, lush jungles we enter at night. In that darkness is a gate to the other side. At heart, tuomeng is a discourse on love, opportunity for recourse, remedy for loneliness, stream for divine aid — depending if the visitor is departed loved one, murdered individual, plant, deity, or other, “engaged in a joint transformative process with the living” (Magali Molinié).
Within the syncretic Chinese religious paradigm, 托梦 (tuōmèng) means to be visited in dreams by departed loved ones or deities with a message to convey. The scrying of these dreams, at times in informal consultation with Chinese religious goods merchants or mediums, is often a pragmatic act of inference for rituals sending money and gifts by fire.
Ancestor Dream Visitation Repository is a research experiment collecting, theorising and translating ancestor dream visitations towards new notions of lineage, remembrance and spirituality for the living descendant / future ancestor. Artistic processes alchemically transmute spiritual intentions into creative manifestations sitting between art and life. Occupying the thin veil space between sleep and wake, living and dead, ADVR posits expanded definitions of ancestor while cultivating a community of dreamers touching portals.
While the Repository emerges from research within the Chinese religious paradigm, it is secular and reaches widely to learn from different practices and perspectives. All are welcome regardless of background. Ancestors do not need to be biological.
poster design by XUE