FROM ALCHEMY TO DOCUMENTARY SCHIZOPHRENIA
MATERIAL | SPIRIT | SIGNS | PHILOSOPHY | SOCIETY | POLITICS | VIOLENCE | REVOLUTION | PATH
THE OCCULT MATRIX OF THOUGHT
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL REFLECTION BETWEEN ALCHEMY, PHILOSOPHY,
AND HUMAN WILL
I am creating an occult image that connects alchemy, modern philosophy, human society, and the evolution of willpower.The work unfolds through a documentary-like matrix structure, adopting a multidimensional and non-linear method of association.Its form is two-dimensional, yet its conceptual expression is inherently three-dimensional.
Starting from Aristotle’s and alchemy’s four elements—fire, water, earth, and air—as the origin,which also marks the point of inquiry in Plato’s theory of the “world of forms,”I apply Aristotle’s theory of matter and form to deconstruct the process of creation itself through the structural transformation of alchemy.
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL REFLECTION BETWEEN ALCHEMY, PHILOSOPHY,
AND HUMAN WILL
I am creating an occult image that connects alchemy, modern philosophy, human society, and the evolution of willpower.The work unfolds through a documentary-like matrix structure, adopting a multidimensional and non-linear method of association.Its form is two-dimensional, yet its conceptual expression is inherently three-dimensional.
Starting from Aristotle’s and alchemy’s four elements—fire, water, earth, and air—as the origin,which also marks the point of inquiry in Plato’s theory of the “world of forms,”I apply Aristotle’s theory of matter and form to deconstruct the process of creation itself through the structural transformation of alchemy.
THE RHIZOMATIC ALCHEMY OF TRANSFORMATION
FRAGMENTATION, TRANSMUTATION, AND THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL
COSMOS OF SYMBOLS
I employ Deleuze’s rhizome theory as a method of deconstruction, fragmenting the totality of information and following the four alchemical stages—Nigredo (blackening), Albedo (whitening), Citrinitas (yellowing), and Rubedo (reddening)—to symbolize the transformation of matter, spirit, and soul.
Inspired by this conceptual system,I construct a narrative logic that unfolds as a three-dimensional matrix,a continuously expanding symbolic cosmos that transcends linear representation.
FRAGMENTATION, TRANSMUTATION, AND THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL
COSMOS OF SYMBOLS
I employ Deleuze’s rhizome theory as a method of deconstruction, fragmenting the totality of information and following the four alchemical stages—Nigredo (blackening), Albedo (whitening), Citrinitas (yellowing), and Rubedo (reddening)—to symbolize the transformation of matter, spirit, and soul.
Inspired by this conceptual system,I construct a narrative logic that unfolds as a three-dimensional matrix,a continuously expanding symbolic cosmos that transcends linear representation.
ALCHEMICAL REFIGURATION &
REBIRTH OF NARRATIVE COSMOS
THROUGH ALCHEMICAL STAGES, THE SYMBOLIC BODY RECONSTITUTES ITSELF AS A LIVING NARRATIVE COSMOS.
Within the original signifier–signified relation, as well as in the linguistic and meta-linguistic dimensions of Alchemical Tarot, I enact deterritorialization by undoing their conventional totalities. This collapse engenders a pluralistic splitting of expression-entities, content-entities, and heterogeneous imaginaries (for example, fire might signify violence, reproduction, wind, or “you”; water might signify anxiety, god, illusion, or “me”). Anchored in alchemy’s four principal operations—Nigredo (blackening), Albedo (whitening), Citrinitas (yellowing), and Rubedo (reddening)—I incorporate the “deterritorialized Tarot-card-as-material” to inaugurate a novel, open-ended, self-generating narrative cosmos (reflecting a machine-like oral-desire), free of mechanical repetition. In other words, subjectification is the affirmation, expansion, evocation, death, and rebirth of all things within the subject.
REBIRTH OF NARRATIVE COSMOS
THROUGH ALCHEMICAL STAGES, THE SYMBOLIC BODY RECONSTITUTES ITSELF AS A LIVING NARRATIVE COSMOS.
Within the original signifier–signified relation, as well as in the linguistic and meta-linguistic dimensions of Alchemical Tarot, I enact deterritorialization by undoing their conventional totalities. This collapse engenders a pluralistic splitting of expression-entities, content-entities, and heterogeneous imaginaries (for example, fire might signify violence, reproduction, wind, or “you”; water might signify anxiety, god, illusion, or “me”). Anchored in alchemy’s four principal operations—Nigredo (blackening), Albedo (whitening), Citrinitas (yellowing), and Rubedo (reddening)—I incorporate the “deterritorialized Tarot-card-as-material” to inaugurate a novel, open-ended, self-generating narrative cosmos (reflecting a machine-like oral-desire), free of mechanical repetition. In other words, subjectification is the affirmation, expansion, evocation, death, and rebirth of all things within the subject.
Created by LYCHEN(YUCHEN LI), 2025
Chelsea, London, UK
Chelsea, London, UK
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