Seven immersive projects by Taiwan-born artist Lee Ming-wei (李明維) are being shown in an exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, including a new work created by destroying a sand replica of a Pablo Picasso painting.
In Lee’s Guernica in Sand performance on March 23, the artist and visitors walked, brushed, swept or sat on a large-scale sand recreation of Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica, which Lee crafted over three weeks, the museum’s Web site says.
When he first presented the performance in London in 2006, his mother started by stepping on the large-scale installation, Lee said.
Photo: CNA
He and his mother had a tearful interaction while “changing” and “destroying” the perfectly recreated sand painting, as both of them were trying to find a balance in their complex feelings, he said.
In the interactive installation The Mending Project, which started on Feb. 17 and runs daily until July 7, Lee or a guest host repairs clothing brought in by visitors.
“The mending is done with the idea of celebrating and commemorating the act of repair,” the museum says. “This conscious embrace and highlighting of the fabric’s scar(s) speaks to the emotional work of mending as a means to deal with trauma and loss.”
Lee’s latest work, Chaque souffle une danse (Each Breath a Dance), is to premiere as a live performance at the Minnesota Street Project Foundation in San Francisco on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Friday to May 5.
The 45-minute dance piece commissioned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is to be presented as a 17-minute film at the de Young Museum from Tuesday next week, the museum said.
The performance, in which a dancer lights 60 candles before blowing them out, could be a kind of self-exploration and self-healing, Lee said.
“The style of works created in my 20s is like imitating masterpieces,” said the artist born in 1964. “The new piece is more mature and is something that grew with my life experiences. It’s a part of the aesthetic of my own, and represents the messages I want to share.”
Lee’s solo exhibition “Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care” also includes the documentary How Lee Mingwei’s Art is Mending the Social Fabric, directed by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Megan Bates, which is to be shown until the event closes on July 7.
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