Lee Mingwei: The Art Must Go On

Versatile in time, location and form, Lee Mingwei's works are characterized by themes of transience, temporality and transmission. Lee often orchestrates one-on-one situations that produce ephemeral relationships with his audiences, where he offers a small service or gift in exchange for their participation and trust. By being both relational and participatory, his works are meant to inspire introspection regarding relationships, our own and others. Although his projects are deceptively simple in appearance, often portrayed as familiar everyday actions of eating, sleeping, conversing, mending or gifting in company, there lies great psychological and spiritual depth to them. Therefore, as a method to unpack the rich underlying concepts behind his works, this study will relate Lee Mingwei's projects to prevalent concepts of Relational Aesthetics, Zen Buddhism and gift-giving tendencies.