Artist Lee Mingwei has exhibitions at both the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center this spring. Combining Western conceptual art with traditional Chinese aesthetics and philosophies, Mingwei's work directly reflects on the idea that as humans, we should leave no trace on this earth. Below is a list of the four works shown locally. Click on each one to see detailed descriptions of the piece. Texts are excerpted from interview transcripts with Lee Mingwei and curators from the Gardner and Davis Museums.

The Living Room, 2000

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, February 27 - April 30, 2000

Lee Mingwei creates a modern-day version of the salon life Isabella Gardner used to enliven her collection. Lee and museum staff act as hosts to the Museum, spending the day interacting with visitors who enter the special exhibition gallery. Lee turns the special exhibition gallery into a modern living space, complete with comfortable seating, plants, music, and even songbirds. For the first week, Lee acts as host to visitors, engaging in dialogue about the objects of personal significance that he has brought into the gallery. Other hosts from the Gardner family, including staff members, Trustees, volunteers, and school teachers, follow, a different one every two days, greeting and talking with visitors about what they have selected from their own homes that they value. Lee's work invites visitors to become involved and reflect upon what they value, as Isabella Gardner did in installing her Museum.

Reflections, 1999

Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center, February 24 - June 14, 2000

Reflections, 1999, is a meditation on personal identity -- who are we? What are our personal boundaries? What is our relationship to other individuals? The piece consists of a long wooden chamber divided into two sections by mirrored glass. The reflected image of a visitors within one chamber merges with that in the other. The act of contemplating the merged images becomes as assessment of self in the context of others.

The Letter-Writing Project, 1998

Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center, February 24 - June 14, 2000

The Letter-Writing Project, 1998, encourages the viewer to write letters that we have always intended to write, but have never made the time to compose. Mingwei creates a space to meditate on our relationships with others. Paper and envelopes are available within three booths, one designed for standing, one for sitting, and one for kneeling, postures that correspond to Buddhist meditation. The artist suggests we think of gratitude, insight, and forgiveness.

Money for Art, 1997

Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center, February 24 - June 14, 2000

Money for Art, 1997, invites visitors to re-think relationships between art and money, art and object, art and personal values. Here the visitor is invited to take a dollar bill that has been folded into an intricate origami-shape and put in its place something he/she deems a fair exchange. The definition of art and the demarcation of value are called into question. Is one going to leave a twenty-dollar bill, a package of tissues, a piece of jewelry? Is the origami bill now a work of art or legal tender?

Thanks to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Davis Museum and Cultural Center for these descriptions of the projects.