Dane Mitchell considers the boundaries of perception and invisibility through a variety of media, both sculptural and shamanistic. In particular, he often works with specialised practitioners such as shamans to "charge" objects and spaces.

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Mitchell, working with the cylindrical space of the Biennale Hall, has equated the form of this space with the Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido, a Joseon Dynasty astronomical chart from the 14th century – an act that reflects conversations and psychic communication he engaged in with a Gwangju shaman. By immersing ourselves in constellations from the heavens projected within the space, we become aware of its invisible energies through its having been charged by the shaman in a ritual act during installation. The glass objects within the space contain the words of the shaman and the artist's breath.

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The artist has echoed a circularity throughout his project, which unfolds across two locations. Mitchell's sculpture, also on display at Mugaksa Temple, consists of recorded sounds of Mitchell himself repeatedly uttering the word "now" across a series of 52 locked-groove records. Alongside this year-long recording – an attempt to locate the present – sit 12 round ceramic objects. These ashen forms have been fired with plant material selected by the shaman, and bear the markings of the artist's tongue (a cast of which was pressed against the surface of the wet clay) as well as the markings of star constellations on their surfaces.

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During a research visit to Gwangju, Mitchell met several shamans in the hope of establishing a working relationship with one for his project. After an intensive four-hour meeting with one in particular, his participation was confirmed. Mitchell returned to New Zealand, and some weeks later requested that the Biennale coordinator overseeing the production of various elements of his project speak with the shaman about meeting in Seoul to work together in a glassblowing studio – more specifically, to capture the shaman's breath in glass. A reply was relayed to Mitchell by the coordinator: the shaman no longer wished to communicate by way of an intermediary or by regular means, and requested that Mitchell communicate with him only on the astral plane, by way of sending "spiritual letters".

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What this does – besides see the artist sitting at his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sends spiritual letters the shaman's way – is to materialise and ritualise the process of communication: these actions become both rites within the work and its material being. As Marcel Mauss explains: "The preparation of the ingredients and the confection of the products is the main – the central – object of the whole ceremony and has its own entry and exit rites. . . It is a moment in the ritual" (Mauss, 1950). This method of communication might at first seem to obfuscate and complicate things but, in fact, working with such practitioners is never transparent and is always full of complexity and unknowns.