Born in Taiwan and currently based in New York City, Ming-wei Lee he has often “focused on issues of trust and hospitality, particularly between strangers, creating both participatory installations, where strangers can explore trust, intimacy and self awareness on their own, and on one-on-one events, where visitors explore such issues with the artist himself through eating, sleeping, waking or conversation”. Lee’s projects are often open-ended scenarios for everyday interaction, and take on different forms depending on the participants. Time is central to this process, as his installations often change during the course of an exhibition.
The project at Mount Stuart at Isle of Bute is a sound installation composed of new work in three separate parts which focus on the artist’s perception of the nature of contextual sound within the gardens and house. Whilst the visual senses are bombarded with cultural and decorative information, the sense of sound is curiously muffled, sometimes deeply resonant, changing with the echoes of sea, trees, wind and weather. Inside the majestic interiors the visitor listens to real and imagined sounds, past and present, public and private.
A large bronze and wood wind chime sculpture placed in the landscaped park references the Taiwanese symbols of circular (enlightenment or the realization towards the ideal) and square (earth) and is supported by a net structure resembling the poetic technique of a spider’s web. The public’s ability to enter the installation through or under its form reflects the relationship between natural and man made elements.
The journey through the house introduces further sensory sound experience and a heightened sense of awareness. Ming-wei utilizes an invisible location to provide echoes of music lessons given in situ, audible from the hall and second floor gallery. A further installation within the conservatory, originally conceived as an astrological observatory and subsequently used as an operating theatre during Mount Stuart’s temporary use as a Naval Hospital during the 1914-1919 World War symbolizes repair, renewal and the ongoing transformation of space.
Lee’s solo exhibitions include ‘The Mending Project’ Lombard Freid Projects, New York 2009; ‘Gernika in Sand’ Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia 2008; ‘Duologue’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan 2007; ‘Through Masters’ Eyes’ Los Angeles County Museum of Arts 2004; ‘The Tourist’ Museum of Modern Art, New York 2003 and Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, Texas 2002; ‘Living Room Project’ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston 2000; ‘The Letter Writing Project’ The Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia, PA 1998; ‘Way Stations’ Whitney Museum of American Art New York 1998. The artist has exhibited in Lyon Biennial France 2009; Taiwan Art Biennial 2008; Asian Art Biennial 2007 &2008; Tate Liverpool 2006; Whitney Biennial New York 2004; Venice Bienale, Taiwan Pavilion 2003.
Future solo exhibitions include Museum for Chinese in America, Brooklyn Museum, Asia Society and Liverpool Biennial 2010. The artist is represented through Lombard-Freid Projects, New York.
For further information on Lee’s project at Mount Stuart, please call: 01700-503877, or contact contactus@mountstuart.com , or visit the following website www.mountstuart.com
