Lee Mingwei (2010)

Current Exhibiting Artist

Trilogy of Sounds

Artist Talk: 9 May, 3pm (booking advisable)
Exhibition: 9 May – 30 September 2010

Visitor Centre, gallery & gardens open 10am – 6pm daily
House open daily - please call for detailed opening times.

Admission free to visual art exhibitions

Lee Mingwei describes his artistic orientation as "social conceptualism". Visitor participation is integral to his projects. Born in Taiwan and currently based in New York City, he has often "focused on issues of trust and hospitality, particularly between strangers, creating both participatory installations, where strangers can explore trust, intimacy and self awareness on their own, and on one-on-one events, where visitors explore such issues with the artist himself through eating, sleeping, waking or conversation". Lee's projects are often open-ended scenarios for everyday interaction, and take on different forms depending on the participants. Time is central to this process, as his installations often change during the course of an exhibition.

The project at Mount Stuart is a sound installation composed of new work in three separate parts which focus on the artist's perception of the nature of contextual sound within the house and gardens. Whilst the visual senses are bombarded with cultural and decorative information, the sense of sound is curiously muffled, sometimes deeply resonant, changing with the echoes of sea, trees, wind and weather. Inside the majestic interiors the visitor listens to real and imagined sounds, past and present, public and private.

Please see Press Release
which can be found here in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Mount Stuart, Britain’s most astounding Victorian gothic house

Photography: Keith Hunter