LEWISTON — In an exhibition believed to be the most extensive of its kind in the United States, the Bates College Museum of Art will present an extraordinary selection of painted scrolls, masks and other objects used in shamanist ceremonies of five ethnic minorities in northern Vietnam.

“How to Make the Universe Right: The Art of the Shaman in Vietnam and Southern China” will open at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, with a talk by Trian Nguyen, associate professor of art and visual culture at Bates, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. The exhibition is based on recent research by Nguyen. A reception follows the lecture.

Showing simultaneously with “Art of the Shaman” is “Remix: Selections From the International Collage Center,” a wide-ranging survey of collages, curated by the International Collage Center and William Low, curator of the Bates Museum of Art.

Pavel Zoubok, founder of the ICC, will present a lecture on the exhibition at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, also in Olin’s Room 104.

The exhibitions appear through March 21. The museum and its programs are open to the public at no cost from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and until 7 p.m. Wednesdays while Bates is in session. For more information, call 207-786-6158.

‘How to Make the Universe Right’

Among Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minorities are five that migrated to the mountainous north from southern China starting as early as the 11th century: the Yao, Tày, Sán Dìu, Cao Làn, Nùng and other groups.

These groups followed a rich and diverse tradition of shamanist practices encompassing Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, animist and other religious beliefs. Their religious ceremonies made use of ritual objects ranging from talismans to musical instruments to painted scrolls.

“How to Make the Universe Right” presents an extraordinary selection of shaman scrolls and other objects from those five minorities, primarily the Yao.

“This exhibition includes more than 350 objects from what may be the most significant collection of its kind in the U.S. And certainly this will be the most extensive exhibition of its kind organized in this country,” said museum director Dan Mills.

Mills curated the exhibition in conjunction with Nguyen, whose research forms the scholarly foundation for the show, and with Barry Kitnick of Santa Barbara, Calif., from whose collection the show has been assembled.

” ‘How to Make the Universe Right’ will appeal to people who are interested not only in beautiful art and material culture, but in history and spiritual beliefs,” Mills said, “and in storytelling, because these objects are so rich with stories.”

While vestiges of the shamanist traditions linger on, political and social change has largely effaced them from northern Vietnam. “This exhibition creates a remarkable opportunity to see extraordinary works of art that represent people little-known in the West whose spiritual lives really revolved around shamanism,” said Mills.

The shamans, Nguyen explained, are community leaders in more than the spiritual realm. They are the healers and the intelligentsia.

“They are the most educated people,” said Nguyen. “They know how to read and write Chinese. They pass knowledge from one generation to another. And they are really highly honored within the community.”

A manikin dressed as a Yao shaman will greet visitors to the exhibition. A nearby alcove in the museum’s first-floor gallery will house a shrine composed of a typical array of hanging scrolls and ceremonial objects. The bulk of the exhibition will group objects by type.

The scrolls, composed of ink and water-based paint on rice paper, are the focus of the exhibition. One horizontal scroll is 50 feet long. The 80-plus scrolls on display represent a wide diversity of ethnic origins, aesthetic approaches and levels of artistic accomplishment.

In the Daoism-based tradition of the Yao, the scrolls were used in ceremonies for ordination, healing and funerals; many depict deities. Once consecrated by the shaman, such scrolls were believed to be inhabited by the deities, and the shaman could communicate to them, and through them to worshippers’ ancestors.

Kitnick engaged Nguyen to research his collection of the shaman objects, based on the Bates professor’s extensive knowledge of Asian art, languages and culture. His research will take the shape of an illustrated nine-chapter publication that’s likely to be the first authoritative work in English on the subject.

A fourth partner in creating the exhibition is the Art, Design and Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to which the show will travel late next year. Ayse Ikizler, a Bates junior and museum curatorial intern, helped with the design of the exhibition.

Important support for “How to Make the Universe Right” comes from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

‘Remix’

A work by performance artist and collagist Alfred Earl Hansen that consists of Hershey chocolate bar wrappers Xeroxed, cut up and reassembled to tell a sort of love (or lust) story.

A blanket-based collage that references memory, family and the African American experience by Radcliffe Bailey, who said his “art is about history and the mystery of history.”

A collage rendering of a child-Jesus icon by Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, whose mixed-media works express a trashy opulence concocted from household items and dollar stores.

These are a few works from “Remix: Selections from the International Collage Center,” an exhibition emphasizing contemporary production in the fertile field of collage.

” ‘Remix’ is an exhibition of works by more than 50 artists whose diverse approaches to collage illustrate the incredible range of the medium,” said the Museum of Art’s William Low. “The result is a dynamic and engaging show.”

Low curated the exhibition in conjunction with the ICC and with the assistance of curatorial intern Becca Rosen, a senior art and visual culture major from Newton, Mass.

“Collage is an important movement throughout Modern and contemporary art — but often overlooked and under-appreciated,” said Low.

If the basic techniques of collage are much older, this art form is thought to have “arrived” about a century ago with Modernist artists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. They were the first to use the word “collage” — a form of the French word “coller,” meaning “to glue” — to describe their assemblages of disparate found objects.

“Remix” is a touring exhibition produced by the ICC. Based in Milton, Pa., the center is dedicated to the appreciation of collage and its related forms, from Modernism to the digital age. The ICC maintains a permanent lending and research collection, and its programming promotes community and scholarship within the field and beyond.

Linking historical and contemporary approaches to collage, “Remix” explores seven dominant themes in collage — among them, the relationship between collage and poetry, collage as an extension of painting, and the use of collage in cultural, social and political resistance.

The engine of collage, the manipulation and juxtaposition of appropriated materials, affords expressive possibilities rarely found in other art forms. “There are great opportunities for interpretation and discovery,” Low said. “Process is evident when viewing collage, providing opportunities to relate to other media, other forms of art making.”

Rosen agreed, citing the excitement of coming to grips with the works in the exhibition. Her responsibilities as an intern included working with Low on selecting pieces from the ICC’s lending collection.

“Some of these collages are very in your face,” she said. “It’s really interesting, and fun, to look at them and figure out what’s going on.”

Finally, Low said, collage is a distinctively topical art form. “It’s often a way for artists to depict ideas that are present or relevant in their time. It’s a window to contemporary cultural issues, whether social, racial, environmental or gender-related.”

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