LEE
Mingwei

The Letter Writing Project, 1998

Mixed media interactive installation.
Wooden booth, writing paper, envelopes

3 pieces, each : 290 x 170 x 231 cm | 114 3/16 x 66 15/16 x 90 15/16 inch

Edition of 3 + 1 AP

Courtesy Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

photograph : Yoshitsugu Fuminari

When my maternal grandmother passed away, I still had many things to say to her but it was too late. For the next year and a half I wrote many letters to her, as if she were still alive, in order to share my thoughts and feelings with her.

For The Letter Writing Project, I invited visitors to write the letters they had always meant to but never taken time for. Each of three writing booths, constructed of wood and translucent glass, contained a desk and writing materials. Visitors could enter one of the three booths and write a letter to a deceased or otherwise absent loved one, offering previously unexpressed gratitude, forgiveness or apology. They could then seal and address their letters (for posting by the museum) or leave them unsealed in one of the slots on the wall of the booth, where later visitors could read them. Many later visitors come to realize, through reading the letters of others that they too carried unexpressed feelings that they would feel relieved to write down and perhaps share. In this way, a chain of feeling was created, reminding visitors of the larger world of emotions in which we all participate. In the end, it was the spirit of the writer that was comforted, whether the letter was ever read by the intended recipient or others.

Exhibitions :
2014 Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2000 The Davis Museum, Wellesley
1998 Whitney Museum of American Art

PERROTIN

New York

On Saturday, February 22 from 6-8pm Perrotin New York will host an opening reception for Cinga Samson's exhibition Amadoda Akafani, Afana Ngeentshebe Zodwav (mean are different though they look alike) and Bharti Kher's exhibition The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos.

Preceding the opening, at 5:00pm, the New York gallery will host a special walkthrough of Bharti Kher’s exhibition, The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos, led by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

rsvpny@perrotin.com

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LEE Mingwei

The Letter Writing Project, 1998

PERROTIN

New York

LEE
Mingwei