Shamanism is a belief system wherein a person (shaman) acts as an intermediary between humans and spirits. Inspired by Phantoms of Asia, this MATCHA event looks at how the living interact with the spirit world. Our special guest is Dohee Lee, currently an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts. She will reveal excerpts from her work-in-progress, Mago, which layers installation, music, dance, animation, and ritual with Korean traditional art forms and shamanism.

From August 16–19, 2012, six Tibetan Buddhist monks travelled to San Francisco from the Drepung Loseling Phukhang Monastery in South India to create a sand mandala for the Asian Art Museum. Over four days, they meticulously applied powdered pigments to a geometric mandala outline. The monks intend that the sand mandala will generate positive effects that radiate over the entire region. They believe that the mandala's presence will bless both the environment and the beings therein, thus making a Buddhist contribution to world peace.

Paul Hoover reads a poem he wrote in response to the works "Anonymity," 2008-2011 (eight from a series of nine light boxes) by Poklong Anading and Chinese bronze mirrors (from the Asian Art Museum's collection). These works are on view as part of the exhibition "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past" (on view at the Asian Art Museum from May 18-September 2, 2012). For more information: http://www.asianart.org/phantoms/ This presentation was part of MATCHA: Phantoms Arise! For more information: http://www.asianart.org/matcha/pastevents.htm#m2012 Co-presented with Litquake.

Described as "an archaeologist of visual apocrypha," US and Hong Kong-based artist Adrian Wong plays with signifiers of culture and identity, lending objects new life through adjusted interpretations. With his unique background—including an MA in developmental psychology and an MFA in sculpture—Wong makes esotericism accessible and tangible. From performance art to sculptures, video, and other installations, Wong experiments with perception while bringing a rigorously researched approach to art.

Hailed as one of the most important photographers of our time, New York-based Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto is also an accomplished architect. He approaches his work from many different perspectives, with architecture as one component in designing the settings for his installations. As a photographer of the highest technical ability, with equal acclaim for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work, Sugimoto has created works in his "Five Elements" series that are constructed as shrines to a primordial birthplace.

In 1420, in an effort to consolidate his control over the throne, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty moved China's capital to a site in the North, now known as Bejing. There, he built a vast complex of palaces and administrative buildings now covering 178 acres. Because access was restricted to the imperial family and to those who had business with them, it came to be known as the Forbidden City. Learn more in this short documentary.

The Chinese Buddhist figures seen in the galleries at the Asian Art Museum were originally placed in temples and monastic buildings. This video explores Wutaishan, an area with one of the heaviest concentration of Buddhist temples in China.

Born in New York, Palden Weinreb’s Tibetan heritage speaks through his strikingly spare works. Weinreb is inspired by sublimity: motion, space, and mystery. For Phantoms of Asia (on view at the Asian Art Museum from May 18-September 2, 2012), Weinreb’s minimalist works (including paintings and light boxes) are meditations on existence and the universe. By reducing visual components to their simplest forms, Weinreb’s work explores how all things may be interconnected. For more information: http://www.asianart.org/phantoms/