An Archaeological Report Sent to the Underworld (2024) is the first case study within Dakota Guo’s ongoing research project, Tools for Speculative Archaeology (2023–present). The exhibition stages a speculative “dig” of ancient Chinese burial artifacts known as zhènmùquàn (镇墓券, Tomb Quelling Documents), forged by the “speculative archaeologist” in the style of Taoist talismans.

The works in the exhibition sequentially perform a ritual of repatriation in the guise of excavation: drafting the talismanic document and crafting it with clay as a prototype of the zhènmùquàn; letting it fall from a height to break into fragments; casting silicone and plaster molds from the shards; and arranging these molds in a squared grid resembling an excavation unit. By foregrounding the mold—the negative form—the work invokes the yin dimension, reconfiguring absence as a generative force.

This inversion not only obscures the procedures of archaeology but also problematizes current debates on restitution. While archaeological and heritage systems often “return” excavated objects to institutions or illegitimate living agents, the speculative archaeologist insists on returning them to their rightful owners—the dead. Here, restitution is reconfigured as a transaction with the underworld, materialized through wax-coated rubbings displayed on the wall, shimmering like contracts delivered into ghostly hands.

Each unused draft of a zhènmùquàn was further ascribed to an anonymous ghost. Visitors were invited to consult these drafts by casting jiǎobēi (筊杯, divination cups) to communicate with the tomb owners. When the cups landed in the position signifying consent—the “sacred cup” (圣杯, shèngbēi)—the visitor could take the corresponding draft away, sealing a temporary covenant with the ghost.