Circle of Life RR: Who would you say are your biggest influencers? LM: Western music composers such as Brahms, Bach, Schubert and Liszt.
TAIWANESE-AMERICAN CONCEPTUAL ARTIST LEE MINGWEI TALKS TO DAMAN’S RICKY RONALDO ABOUT HIS “SEVEN STORIES” PROJECTS AT MUSEUM MACAN
Art doesn’t answer. It raises questions. At least, that’s the case for Lee Mingwei, who’s showing his “Seven Stories” at Museum Macan until March 10, 2019. Most of his projects involve audience participation, using idiosyncratic methods that challenge the boundaries of conventional art. In “Sonic Blossom,” for example, you get a live and personal opera performance. “The Dining Project” offers one-on-one dinners at the museum. And there’s the large sand painting “Guernica in Sand,” a performance piece that takes three stages to complete, one of which lets visitors walk on the sand, while Lee himself completes an unfinished section, representing the cycle of creation and destruction.
DAMAN: You’ve said that “Guernica in Sand” is about the idea of impermanence. Can you elaborate on that?
Lee Mingwei: I feel there is often a cycle to things. For example, people ask me why I use sand. The story started about 12 years ago when my partner and I were traveling in the highland desert in Bolivia when our Jeep was nearly buried in a sandstorm. Luckily, the sandstorm stopped and there was a sliver of light coming through the window. When I rolled down the window—I really had to go out quickly because the sand was coming in—I poked my head out of the sand and it was absolutely silent and pitch black. The stars in the sky were so bright and the only thing I could see due to the lack of light was this squiggly pattern on the sand—and I realized it was made by a snake.
I also came to the realization that the sand was a piece of stone or rock millions of years ago, and it was through water and light that it became sand. Millions of years from now, because of the same elements, it will become a piece of rock again. Who knows, if the earth is still here, it will become sand again.
From this cycle I gained a small sense of understanding of what nature is about. Nothing is permanent. Everything is in a constant cycle of change.
DA: Does your opinion on your artwork change the longer you look at it?
LM: It does. Interestingly, I think these artworks are matured pieces and that they have their own voice. They have their own identity. It’s almost like having children. People give birth to their children and then one day they realize that the children have their own ideas and thoughts. So, these works are like that. Often, participants tell me things that I didn’t understand or I didn’t see in my artwork.
RR: What can we expect from you in the future?
LM: That’s a hugely difficult question to answer because with any of these projects, I didn’t go looking for them. They came to me. And I was lucky enough to receive them and have the energy to become the conduit for them, to turn them into physical reality to share with people who encounter them. And I really believe that one day they would disappear into where they came from. So, I can’t really tell you what will happen down the road. But I’m very certain something quite poetic would happen.