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56 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 57
Lee Mingwei
/ Taiwan/United States b.1964
/
Writing the unspoken
(installation view) 1999
/ Wood, steel, light fittings, glass, writing paper and implements, envelopes, cushion
/
Three booths: 290 x 170 x 231cm (each) (installation size variable)
/ Acc. 2000.018.001–3
/ Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
Lee Mingwe i
Writing the unspoken
1999
Inspired by Buddhist ritual and language, Lee Mingwei’s
Writing the unspoken
invites the participation of Gallery visitors.
Lee has said:
How often, when we encounter another person, do we leave
things unsaid, often the most important things, the things we
will carry inside for years afterward, things which are insistent
and haunting, yet which remain unexpressed until the ears they
seek are beyond reach?
Writing the unspoken
provides space
and opportunity for participants to express these verbal ghosts.
The three booths invite visitors to reflect and write on three
different things — gratitude, insight, and forgiveness . . . My goal
is to give visitors a deep and unexpected experience of certain
inner experiences which they share with others, of feelings
which are deeply and commonly human. The outer form of those
experiences is only a device, albeit a beautiful one, for making
this possible. It requires no faith, only the willingness to read,
to write, to participate in an unnamed ritual of release.