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.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS